Working the Night Shift
by Emiko Aika
Summary: Based off on NBC's 'The Night Shift', love starts to enter the hectic world of the graveyard shift at Konoha General Hospital, where a group of individualistic doctors work hard into the night to save lives. [SasuSaku; NejiTen; ShikaIno] Rated T for language and medical themes. Please read A/N and disclaimer at the start of the story. AU
1. Prologue

**Title:** Working the Night Shift

**Full Summary:** Based off on NBC's 'The Night Shift', love starts to enter the hectic world of the graveyard shift at Konoha General Hospital, where a group of individualistic doctors work hard into the night to save lives. Uchiha Sasuke, a troublesome ex-war medic, runs the night shift like it's his own. Haruno Sakura, a talented workaholic, is new to the night shift but not so new to the Uchiha, whom everyone adores. Along with many other friends and colleagues, the night shift at Konoha General Hospital just got a lot more dramatic and bloody.

**A/N:** This is very much AU. Relationships between the characters in this story will not entirely reflect the same relationships in the show. To those who are familiar viewers of the show, there will be some parts of the story, where similarities are present. But as 'The Night Shift' is not a completed show, this story will also have different events and a slightly different plot line. I am not plagiarizing a perfectly good show; I am using it as a writing reference.

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'. (Sorry for the long disclaimer and the author's note but I feel complied to warn you about what you're going to be reading.)

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

"_Uchiha_," The police officer spat his name out like it was poison to his mouth. His name does bring waves of annoyance to the authorities. He's surprised he's still able to walk a hundred feet without a parole bracelet slapped down on his ankle -something every single officer, who was through with his antics, really wished he had.

Oh wait, that would mean regular visits to the office. They'd rather not see his face.

Sasuke smirked amusedly, much to his chagrin. "Ah, Officer Tashi! How are the kids?" It wasn't weird to be starting up a conversation with the officer. Besides, this is the _thirtieth_ time Sasuke's seen him. He narrowed his eyes at him, refusing to answer. He reached for the keys in his back pocket and the keys dangled against each other as he hesitantly pushed it inside the slot to unlock the steel barred door.

He rose from his comfortable slouch, stretching like a cat after spending the night here. He sauntered to the disgruntled officer, who'd rather leave him behind bars then set him free to the world, full of smugness in his swagger. "Wonderful morning, isn't it, officer?" He sang sarcastically, knowing it would tick him off. "It's five in the afternoon, you punk." He merely grumbled in reply, harshly pushing him out of the holding cell and down the beige colored hallway.

"Just keep walking, _Uchiha_. And no more bar fights. Control that damn temper of yours." He chided tiredly for the millionth time. Eh, he's heard that 'Control that damn temper' thing a million times before. Good advice, but he never really cared to listen.

They entered the lobby and a grumpy looking old warden shoved his things into his arms with a contemptuous look. "Hope I'll never see you again." He muttered under his smoke-filled breath before storming away, hearing a commotion from another part of the police station.

"I'll miss you too, Officer Jinchi!" Sasuke called out snarkily. It didn't matter if the officer heard it or not. All Officer Jinchi had to do was glance at Sasuke's smug and awesome face and his mood for the day was down the drain.

"Now, get out of here!" Officer Tashi literally kicked him out of the doors, probably glad he didn't have to see him for the rest of the day. Hopefully, never again. Yeah, well, Sasuke didn't like them either. He frowned, dusting off his pants and making his way to his bike. Slotting in the key and twisting it, the engine started up with a roar and he grinned excitedly, glad to be back on his bike.

Two hours back to Konoha before he get his head served on a silver platter, trying to explain why he didn't show up last night.

"Let's go before _her majesty_ kicks my ass." And the bike left tire marks on the ground as it sped off back on the road to Konoha General Hospital, a place that he'd like to call: His second home.

* * *

It wasn't long though before he came across a desperate situation that screamed, 'Sasuke, stop the damn bike and put your medic skills to use.' He was riding into the city, passing by residential areas when a crowd of medics and firefighters were gathered around a fallen telephone pole. Medics and firefighters only meant one thing: Someone needed to be rescued.

He parked his bike near a fire hydrant and rushed to the scene. He took in the fallen, bisected telephone phone, the blood and a man with a part of the telephone pole pierced through his stomach. Oh, shit.

"Sir, you can't be-" "I'm a doctor. What happened?" Though it was clear what had gone down –no pun intended- it was necessary to know the entire story. "Construction workers were trying to bring down the pole when it broke in half. The top half impaled one of the workers before he could do anything." The medic explained, regarding the metal piece, which still had wire attached to it, sticking out on the man's stomach.

"Just listen to me and he'll be fine." His jacket slipped off his shoulders and he tossed it to the ground, advancing on the bloody male. He's in shock, Sasuke noted. "Alright, pull the metal pole out." He ordered.

"But he'll bleed-"

"No, he won't, if we do a DPL*."

They shot him panicked looks.

"We don't have enough blood for a transfusion*." One of them argued but he waved his words away distractedly, glancing at the other paramedic sternly. "Grab me tubes, needle, scalpel. Now." He commanded strictly and the young male rummaged through the first aid bag by his side instantly. With his hands now covered with a pair of surgical gloves, he shot a ready look at the paramedic opposite of me.

"Pull it out on three." Sasuke instructed. "One, two, three!" With a strong heave, they quickly pulled the metal part of the telephone pole out. With the combined strength of two other firefighters, they had completely tossed aside the hazard. His focus was now the man, struggling to live on the cement ground. The man groaned in pain into the mask he had strapped on to his face. The bag valve mask was helping him breath and hopefully keep him breathing.

It was no surprise that blood came pouring out of the gaping hole that used to hold the pole. It was a gross sight, really. But doctors can't be choosers when they've pledged to save lives. Paramedics scrambled for tissue, cloth, anything to suppress the waterfall of blood. "He'll bleed out." Said one medic. Not on Sasuke's watch. "No, he won't."

Keeping silent, he stuck his hand into the hole to push it wider for his towel clamp to stick in. He found his renal artery and clamped down on it. "Use his blood." He instructed, motioning to a tube connected to an IV bag at the end. The paramedics immediately rushed about, their hands fumbling around in the frenzy. A medic handed him the contraption. Setting it down for a quick moment, he grabbed his scalpel, making a small incision to fit the tube before piercing it into the artery.

Murmurs of 'what the hell he's doing' and 'hang in there, man' whispered around him but the Uchiha heard nothing. They would see that he'll live for another day, a thought that persisted in his mind. His fingers worked quickly on the tube, red liquid flowing into the bag swiftly. He glanced downwards to check the bag and lifted his hands off the tube, turning to the medics to continue with his instructions. "Pump it back in him once it's filled up. Stack him with another IV bag or something." At that moment, the bag of blood filled up and he unscrewed the cap, handing it to the paramedic across from him. He glanced at him; a flicker of doubt crossed his eyes before screwing back on to a tube with an IV bag connected to it. The two-way tube began working its magic instantly.

"It's working!" One exclaimed in a mix of surprise and relief. "Where'd you learn that?" Sasuke looked up to find the same once dubious paramedic staring at him in wonder.

The Uchiha smirked –something about that smirk reminded the medic of a sinister aristocrat- removing his gloves in a snap. "Out in Sound Country."

* * *

Haruno Sakura became a doctor for a few reasons. One, she enjoyed saving lives. Two, she was well-interested in medicine and surgical procedure. Three, the pay was good. And lastly, four, she preferred to live frenetically rather than peacefully.

Thus so, the last reason in particular was the main reason why she _really_ wanted that chief of staff position for the night shift. Ah, the night shift. A shift that doctors would gladly avoid than sign up for. Nobody really liked how all-over-the-place the night shift was. One moment you're treating a strangely sick patient in trauma one, the next you're trying to stop a hit-and-run victim from bleeding to death. Oh, the life of a regular night shift doctor!

But Haruno Sakura was never one to blend in with social norms. When she first set her sights on the business of the night shift after finishing up in the day, she fell in love instantly. The night shift had a special charm. Her day shift friends called her crazy for thinking to transfer into the night shift.

Sakura knew she was crazy. But once she was enamored with the fast-paced graveyard shift, not even the severe prospect of not being able to snuggle in bed for twelve hours could keep her away. And Haruno Sakura loved her sleep.

So, when the chief of staff position opened up in the night shift because their previous chief of staff had left the country, Haruno Sakura was determined to get that job. Even if it meant following Konoha's hospital administrator, Nara Shikamaru, around like a beat-up puppy.

"I'm sorry but we'll have to wait until the insurance company sends a technician over to reset her defibrillator." The professional voice of a doctor came from behind the blue curtain. She furrowed her eyebrows, unable to step away from duty calls.

"But she's in pain!" A male voice cried out offended by their doctor's lack of action. She peeked inside and saw a woman strapped to a ventilator* and in a hospital gown but she was bucking against her bed as if she were being punched in the chest. She frowned at the stationery doctor on the side. He didn't even look like he wanted to help her at all.

"I'm sorry but like I said, we have to wait for a technician-" "And have her be in pain for five more hours? Are you kidding me? That's wrong." She tsked and stepped into the room, moving to the suffering woman with compassionate eyes.

"I'm Doctor Haruno and I'll be deactivating your defibrillator with a magnet." She told the woman softly and moved to get a magnet from the counter.

"Excuse me, but this is _my_ patient." The doctor emphasized snootily. She rolled her emerald orbs, shooting him a deadpan look.

"Really? Because it seems more like you're a bystander watching her in pain with the credentials of a doctor, who can stop the pain." The doctor gaped at her and she smiled sweetly at him. "Yeah, I thought so too." She placed the magnet over the patient's heart and listened as the beeping of the machine died down, representing her returning normal heart rate. She sighed in relief as the painful shocks disappeared and the creases on her husband's face dissipated.

"Now, you won't feel as if a boxer is punching you in the chest. Feel better?" Sakura smiled at the woman, who in return nodded weakly but the relief was clear on her face. "Now, we can get a technician in here and reset the defibrillator for you. And in no time, you'll be on your way."

Sakura bowed in return to the thanks that both the husband and wife were sending her. Before she left the room, she shot the impractical doctor a look of smugness, delighting in the expression of helplessness that crossed his face after she had done so.

Just then, Uchiha Sasuke rushed through the doors, wheeling in a man covered in white sheets with a few other paramedics. "I need a room and two units of blood! Someone please!" He hollered out, giving out orders immediately. He left the wheeled stretcher with the medics, certain that the staff or someone would guide them to an empty room.

"Good job with that impromptu DPL." An old doctor clapped him on the back and he laughed dryly. "Just saving lives." He spotted a pink haired female approach him after leaving a room. She raised a brow at his state, deciding to comment on his obviously rugged form.

"You look horrible." She said bluntly. Well, Sakura was never a person of sugar and sweets anyway.

But Sasuke wasn't one either. "Thanks, just going for the I-just-pulled-out-a-pole-from-someone's-mid-section look. Pretty trendy." Sasuke was made of sour gummies and bitter herbal medicine.

"I'm not referring to that. I'm referring to the fact that you," He removed his shirt and tossed it to her unceremoniously. "God, you reek of alcohol and jail." She cringed, catching the whiff of his scent mixed with alcohol and a little tinge of blood. He turned to face her abruptly as he entered the storage room, where scrubs and a bunch of other stuff were kept. If Sakura hadn't been fast enough, she would have bumped into his bare and lean chest.

"It comes with the package." He chimed sarcastically and she rolled her eyes, leaning on her dominant leg. "No, but seriously, Sasuke," She watched as he pulled on a blue scrub shirt over his torso. She _kind of_ missed the view. "You're fighting." He paused for a moment before slipping the shirt on fully. "Again." He sighed, knowing where this was going.

"So? I've fought many times before. What difference does it make?" He shrugged, grabbing a stethoscope and hung it around his neck. Sakura frowned. She was worried for him given their _previous _association. However, having known the Uchiha for a long time, his stubbornness and nonchalance? Oh yeah, she had gotten used to that a _looong _time ago.

Deciding not to push the topic unless she risked a really ticked off Sasuke for tonight, she changed the topic into a more professional one. "And you also need to hand in some docs. You know what I'm talking about, right?" She tailed after him as he made his way to help out more patients in need.

"Yeah, sure." Came his airy reply but Sakura was not one to settle for a 'Yeah, sure'. She quickened her pace and stepped in front of the dark-haired male, who towered over her. She glared at him with her best stern look. "I'm serious, Sasuke. Saving lives and diagnosing patients is one thing but paperwork is important as well."

"Okay, Sakura, I'll do it." He caught the relief in her eyes as she found his answer to be sincere enough. Well, it went down the drain soon enough. "_Someday_." He muttered under his breath only to be punched in the gut by an irritated pink head. _God_, how he loved those punches!

"Do it." She demanded and Sasuke knew there was no escape now. It was either hand in the paperwork or get his ass mauled by the temperamental strawberry-haired doctor. Haruno Sakura's temper rivaled his to the point that even he himself is scared to double cross her. If she vowed to castrate you, she **will** castrate you.

"Okay, but, Sakura?" He called out to her retiring back. She halted and turned around expectantly. She was probably expecting a witty comment or a really, _really_ sarcastic remark about how much nonexistent weight she's gained. Sakura was really expecting all that.

Instead, all she got was a smirk –that seriously called for her fist to be unleashed- and a teasing tone in his baritone voice. "You keep forgetting the _–kun_ at the end of my name. I like it when you remember."

She rolled her green eyes, already used to Sasuke's unexpected comments. "I'll remember next time, _Sasuke-kun_." Sakura nodded and walked away, knowing that his triumphant, dark gaze was still on her back.

Damn Uchiha and his greedy need to feel special. Sakura preferred not to use the –kun suffix behind anybody's name. It was something that gave her the chills and something she grew out of. She called everyone by –san because it was right and it was polite. Then again, Sasuke always liked it whenever she added the dreaded suffix, reason being, well, he knew what made Sakura tick and that would be anything that reminded her of the childish gal she was in her childhood.

But if it was for Sasuke and Sasuke only, well then, Sakura didn't exactly mind. It was an inside joke between the two anyway. Not even their best bud, Naruto, would get it. Not even her best gal pal, Tenten, would understand. It was a Sasuke and Sakura strictly thing. So, Sakura would like to think that Sasuke, despite his nonchalance and sarcastic remarks, was actually close to her.

"Woah, man, what's up with you and Sakura-chan? Ticked her off again?" Sasuke felt an arm wrap around his shoulder and the male raised a brow, pushing the blonde haired doctor off.

"No, that's her way of showing she actually likes me as a human being." Sasuke shot back with a smirk and Naruto shook his head wryly. "I'll never understand the both of you. You see, Hinata and I were never at each other's throats when we were dating."

"We're **not** dating, dobe." Sasuke glared at the dumb ass blonde warningly. That was a topic Sasuke preferred not to talk about. "Oh yeah, _that_. Right, sorry for adding salt to fresh wounds." Naruto apologized though he wasn't actually sincere about it.

"Stuff between us romantically ended years ago." The Uchiha replied back monotonously. Naruto rolled his pair of cerulean eyes. "Oh, sure. I'll be the godfather of Sakura's and your children." Naruto clamped a hand down on Sasuke's shoulder only to get it ripped off harshly.

"Go change before I do it for you." Sasuke was smirking at his friend and from afar, it seemed that Sasuke was amused at whatever joke Naruto made. But the dark eyes of the Uchiha spoke differently and Naruto swore. Uzumaki Naruto _swore_ that he saw his death in those eyes. And he knew that it would come true sooner or later if he didn't get his ass out of here.

"I'm out." Naruto left with a cheeky grin and a flamboyant salute. God, how Sasuke hated that idiot.

"Newborn baby, her BP*'s dropping, possible renal failure*." Duty calls.

In a flash, the Uchiha had reached the side of the newborn on the gurney. He listened intently as a paramedic reiterated the details that the infant's mother had provided. Congenital deformity with kidneys, no wet diaper, BP dropping from 93 to 84.

It was rather pitiful. A newborn baby lay in the center of the bed propped up by a pillow barely taking up a two palm-sized worth of space. "Renal failure?" He muttered to himself before placing the stethoscope over the baby's heart. Immediately he pulled back and went into action. "I need pediatrics; she's swelling!" He quickly guided the gurney over into a glassed room.

"Alright, let's-"

"Hold it!" Sasuke stopped his work only to face a bothered Nara Shikamaru. He never really liked the guy and his lazy tendencies. The lazy male was a workaholic though and his apparent sloth-like behavior disappeared at the sign of work. But it still didn't stop his complaints now and then. All in all, Uchiha Sasuke found Nara Shikamaru a hypocrite, but a hypocrite good at his work.

Nara Shikamaru, on the other hand having encountered the Uchiha once or twice before on several occasions, had nothing nice to say about the Uchiha as well. Shikamaru just didn't like the arrogance and the god-like way Sasuke carried himself. Everyone in the night shift adored him. If Shikamaru had a choice, he would have fired the goddamn Adonis a long time ago. However, the hospital was short on staff, especially during the night shift, and he was short on cash.

"What?" Sasuke spat out, continuing his work once again. Shikamaru groaned inwardly. Out of all the doctors that had to have this patient, it had to be the damned Uchiha!

"We can't treat her. We can't afford to treat her. We're going to have to move her to another hospital." Shikamaru said it. There it was. Now, he just hoped that the Uchiha would be a nice and calm citizen and step away.

Ah, how wrong was he…

"Uchiha Sasuke, did you hear me? I said-" "Yeah, I know what you said. Please close the door on your way out." Shikamaru opened his mouth to argue but decided against it, storming out of the room with a deep, dark scowl etched on his face.

Damn, troublesome Uchiha just kicked this hospital's administrator out of a room that he had funded to be built for. Why did God have to bestow upon his hospital a talented yet extremely difficult doctor? What did he do in his past life to deserve someone so troublesome?

"Shikamaru-san!" Oh, and there's the annoying voice of that day shift transfer. Haruno Sakura. "Shikamaru-san, can we please talk about that job offer?" And the recently opened up chief of staff position that she really wanted.

He stopped in his silent rampage to face the hopeful pink-haired female. He sighed tiredly. He'd just have to deal with her. She wasn't as _bad_ as the Uchiha. "What do you want, Doctor Haruno?" He drawled in his tired voice.

She either ignored it completely or was too eager about the job to even notice. "The chief of staff position for the night shift that just opened up? I _really_ want it." She grinned widely, clasping her hands together hopefully.

"I _know_ you want it." _Shikamaru's 200+ IQ would be ridiculed if he didn't._ Shikamaru eyed the bubbly female doctor in front of him. Whatever helped her stay this energetic and **alive** despite all the hassle of the night shift, he wanted it. Desperately.

"Why?" Shikamaru asked because he was truly curious of her reasons. It wasn't every day that an exceptional doctor such as Haruno Sakura hounded his ass constantly for one small job in the night shift. And hounding his ass for more than ten days to be exact from the time he announced that the position opened up.

Sakura grinned excitedly. "Because I've fallen in love with the night shift." She's bat-shit crazy, Shikamaru officially concluded. "Right now, things are absolutely hectic without someone to run the whole shenanigan. That is why you really need a chief of staff. And that person is me!" She pointed to herself proud. Shikamaru had stopped listening after 'shift' because he knew that she would change once she actually experienced the night shift, the epitome of hell. "I know the pay isn't exactly a big difference from what I'm being paid but I don't care. You need a person to run the place. I'm the chief of staff you've been looking for." He sighed disinterestedly. She was just another one of those dreamers who believed that the night shift would be all glamorous and cool.

"And I can help you control Sasuke."

...

Oh.

"You're hired." She was a dreamer who could **handle **that Uchiha. And he wouldn't have to spend his mind thinking about the trouble the Uchiha's causing here or there for the night shift. Perfect.

* * *

**A/N:**

List of characters in which I have somewhat based off the characters in this story's personality so far in order of appearance:

TC Callahan – Uchiha Sasuke

Jordan Alexander – Haruno Sakura

Topher Zia – Uzumaki Naruto

Michael Ragosa – Nara Shikamaru

I know the story starts out and has similar events to the show's first episode but it will soon deviate from the story line. When I start brushing up on my medical research, most incidents will likely **not** come from the show.

**Medical terms explained:**

DPL – stands for "diagnostic peritoneal lavage"; surgical diagnostic procedure to determine if there is free floating fluid (most often blood) in the abdominal cavity (Credit: Wikipedia)

Transfusion – an act of transfusing donated blood, blood products, or other fluid into the circulatory system (Credit: Google definitions)

Ventilator – a machine that supports breathing (Credit: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

BP – blood pressure

Renal failure – a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter waste products from the blood (Credit: Wikipedia)

**R&R. :D**


	2. Sucker Punch

**A/N:** This is very much AU. Relationships between the characters in this story will not entirely reflect the same relationships in the show. To those who are familiar viewers of the show, there will be some parts of the story, where similarities are present. But as 'The Night Shift' is not a completed show, this story will also have different events and a slightly different plot line. I am not plagiarizing a perfectly good show; I am using it as a writing reference.

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'. (Sorry for the long disclaimer and the author's note but I feel complied to warn you about what you're going to be reading.)

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

Suigetsu became a doctor for two reasons. One: He came from a line of surgeons and ER doctors. Two: The nurses were hot.

So, when he arrived at Konoha General Hospital, he was already excited to start out saving lives. Imagine what he would tell his future dates. "Oh yeah, in addition to my awesomeness, I save lives. Love me." Girls loved the 'I save lives' thing. It was cool and oh-so-hot to them.

But first, learning how to impress the opposite gender was important as well. Hence, the reason why he's leaning on the counter and shooting winks and finger-guns to the female nurses and doctors. He heard that girls liked angles and they found it stimulating when a man bends his elbow in a 45-degree angle. Weird, but girls liked weird stuff.

First target: Tenten.

Tenten was the other newbie. Both of them had recently entered in an internship at the hospital and were slotted into the night shift. Suigetsu didn't really expect to get the night shift, considering how stressful he heard it was from his brothers. He didn't assume they would want two fresh-faced interns butting into their business while trying to teach them the basics when they could save lives instead.

"So, um, I see you're looking good in those scrubs." He started off with a compliment because girls loved compliments. Tenten, with her signature two buns atop her head, paid no heed to him and scrolled through the paperwork she was told to read. Suigetsu had already read them. He was a fast reader like that.

"Thanks." Came Tenten's distracted reply. Damn, Tenten was a tough girl to impress.

"So, the night shift? Pretty cool, yeah?"

"Yup."

"I can't believe they put us newbies into this environment."

"Sure."

"I mean; I expected them to start us off in the day shift since that's slightly less hectic but-" She's not paying attention to him. What to do? Suigetsu would really like something to toss or play with now. When he got nervous or uncomfortable, his hands preferred to mess around with something to take his mind off how bad he sounded. Something fun he could toss around like a ball. His eyes trailed to the box next to him and found it filled with toys. Oh, the lost and found. Great.

Grabbing a plastic dolphin toy, Suigetsu busied his hands by throwing it and catching it again. Much better. Now he could concentrate. "I understand why they would put the both of us out of all the other interns into the night shift." Suigetsu commented lightly. It seemed to have caught Tenten's attention because her dark brown eyes flitted to him with an interested light.

"Why so?" She questioned smoothly, turning back to her papers. Her ears though were still awaiting Suigetsu's answer. Suigetsu smirked successfully. All he needs to do is compliment her and she'll be flattered to the point of no return.

"Well, first of all, you're a talented and brilliant intern. Like, I heard that you were a star student back in medical school and not just any medical school, the top medical school in the Fire Country. Of course, they'd trust you with the night shift." Suigetsu shrugged as if it was common sense. Tenten bit back an amused smile and nodded lightly. "Why, thank you. I work hard." Tenten leaned against the wall as a male nurse walked by.

"What about you?" She redirected the question to Suigetsu and Suigetsu's chest rose. That was an easy question for the likes of Suigetsu. "Well, I come from a family of surgeons and ER doctors." Tenten bobbed her head. "That's nice." She mused. "So, it would only deem fit to place a genetically talented doctor into the night shift. Medicine runs in our blood." The white-haired male placed a proud palm on his chest. _Obviously_ that's why he was placed into the night shift. **Obviously**.

"That's cool and all newbie but I would not be touching _anything_ from that box." Kankuro shook his head with a disgusted expression. Suigetsu raised an inquisitive brow at the male nurse. "Why not?"

Kankuro held back his laughter as he stared at the clueless intern. Oh boy, he would sure have fun with this little dude. "Because anything in that box has been pulled out off people's rectums and they have not been cleaned or sterilized yet."

Suigetsu dropped the dolphin toy like it was a bomb. He glared in horror at the grinning dolphin toy. Oh, so the dolphin was mocking his idiocy as well. That's nice. That's _very_ nice. Tenten looked like she was going to crack up and throw up at the same time. He just ruined his chances with Tenten and possibly any chance with any nurse in this hospital once word gets out about his stupidity. Because in the night shift, gossip travels faster than the speed of light. And by the end of this shift, everyone would be making fun of him. Great start for his career. Just **great**.

Naruto casually joined the three. Two people dying of laughter. One dying of epic grossness. "What's going on?" Naruto asked, catching the wide grin on Kankuro's face. He shook his head. Never mind. He didn't have the time to know. "Kankuro, you said something about seeing me."

Kankuro turned to the blonde doctor, still laughing about the unfortunate incident. "Oh, right, Doctor Uzumaki," He cleared his throat, trying to appear professional. He gestured to the two interns, Tenten and the about-to-cut-off-his-hand Suigetsu. "These two are the newbies in town. Tenten. Suigetsu." He introduced and Naruto moved forward to shake their hands graciously.

"I wouldn't shake his hand." Chimed Kankuro's cautious voice. Naruto immediately retracted his hand before Suigetsu could take it. "You touched **the box**." Naruto deadpanned and Suigetsu yelped in embarrassment. Kankuro chuckled airily before returning to the original topic. "Alright, newbies. You'll be following Doctor Uzumaki for tonight and he'll show you the ropes." Naruto grinned warmly at the two nervous interns. After all, Naruto did like more friends.

"Great, you'll be learning from the best." Naruto smirked before Kankuro snickered on the side. "Are you sure you're not mixing yourself up with Sasuke?" Naruto glared at Kankuro, who backed off with a seemingly innocent expression. Naruto did not like to be compared with his best bud, the Uchiha.

Kankuro snapped his fingers, finding a way to escape the pricked Uzumaki. "Right, I just remembered." He turned to the two interns with a cheeky grin. Both of them knew it wasn't a good sign. "Doctor Uzumaki, there's a patient for you in room three. Forty-year-old dude with second-degree burns on his," He clucked his tongue, pointing down below and Naruto groaned reluctantly. "Seriously? I just finished up a nice dinner made by my wife and you send me a patient, who did something stupid to his testicles?!"

"Sorry, doc, but the man claims that he was in his kitchen naked when he _accidentally_ spilled hot water on his rod." Kankuro shot Naruto a disbelieving look that told the doctor that the man was clearly lying to cover up some weird fetish or something. Naruto sighed and made his way to room three with Tenten and Suigetsu (who still couldn't figure out what to do with his hand) following behind him obediently.

"You see, kids," He started out with a lazy, playful drawl. "This is why intercourse should always be in the bedroom." He shot them an exasperated look and Tenten giggled while Suigetsu winced. "I think you and Hinata have christened every single room in your house when you got married last year." Sasuke chimed cheekily as he passed the group. Naruto made a move to wring his neck but the onyx-haired male merely dodged his attempt and walked away smirking.

"Don't listen to him and his nonsense." He told the two interns but he already knew that respect for him just went down a whole 'nother drain. The drain of laughter. "That's Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto decided to give up on restoring his lost respect. The least he could do is make fun of the Uchiha behind his back. He's been doing it for ages. "I call him teme." Nothing gets old.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the reception counter, a tall, heavily built male stomped up to the counter, approaching a busy Konan. He had a scowl set deep on his features and he wasn't looking very…cheery. "I've been waiting for an hour. I want to be seen!" He roared impatiently. Konan rolled her eyes, having dealt with difficult patients before. She faced the giant thug with an unimpressed look. "Look, sir, I know you've been waiting for an hour but there are other people in front of you, who have been waiting longer. We're currently in the middle of a shift change and we're undermanned. I need you to return to your seat and-"

"NO! I WANT TO BE SEEN NOW!" He hollered madly and Konan took a step back cautiously. Well, then. "Sir, I need you to calm-" "NOW!" He disregarded Konan and advanced upon her scarily. A security guard began to apprehend him but he wasn't enough for the huge, buff guy. Now, Konan wasn't scared of him because she'd seen worse violent patients before and things had gone far worse than this. However, she knew that if he didn't stop, trouble would ensue and it would mess up the entire night shift.

"Sir, please, just calm-" "NO!" He huffed and punched the security guard, effectively knocking him to the ground. Nurses and doctors gasped and moved away from the uncontrollable male. All except for one.

The thug was approached by a white-eyed doctor, who had his long dark hair in a pony tail. His expression betrayed none of his emotions as he approached the burly man calmly. "Sir, I need you to calm down." He held his hands out to show that he meant no harm. "Please don't make a scene." He chided lightly.

But it seems that thick brawns meant thick brains because the angry thug charged at Hyuuga Neji with a scary expression and a thunderous roar. Yet Neji made no move to show that he was afraid of this big guy. When the male was in enclosed proximity, Neji sent a swift kick to the man's thick calf, effectively catching him off guard. The man knelt on the ground and Neji smoothly placed the struggling man in a choke hold. "Alright, big guy, go to sleep. Go to sleep." He calmly chanted as the buff male's eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head as he fainted from the lack of oxygen. The male's body went limp and Neji slowly dragged him onto the ground.

Did Neji mention he was trained in mixed martial arts? No? Well, oops. Not that sorry. Neji gently laid the unconscious man's head on the ground and glanced at a doctor. "He'll be fine. Place his feet in the air and he'll wake up." Neji dusted off his hands and rose from his spot. Konan stared at Neji in slight awe. She'd always known that the Hyuuga was currently in training to be a field medic for the Fire country army. However, this was the first time she'd seen him show off his skills.

Hyuuga Neji shot Konan a concerned look, knowing she had been in the middle of the fray of things. "I'm fine, tough guy. A little bit awestruck at your ninja skills but I'm fine. I've dealt with way worse stuff like this." Konan reassured the male and he nodded with a charming smile that swept half the nurses of their feet. Not Konan because she's known the dude for a long time and let's just say he wasn't Konan's type. So, she wasn't interested in the guy. As cool as the Hyuuga was when he was doing knee kicks and sustaining deranged patients, the male was smooth with his words and the ladies. He wasn't intentionally suave. He just had a natural feel for a woman's heart. No big deal.

"That's good. Wouldn't want my favorite duty nurse to be traumatized, right?" He joked and Konan rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "I'm flattered I'm your favorite but I don't believe that will last long." She shot him a secretive look and Neji grew confused. Wha?

She handed him a clipboard with a patient's details on it. He glanced down at it and groaned almost immediately. "Room two has a sixty-two-year-old lady who wants to check if she has HIV or not. She's been complaining of a flu that will never leave." Konan grinned as Neji glared at her disdainfully. He was not pleased with this. He said nothing as he left for room two but Konan made sure she pricked his last nerve.

"Have fun checking her insides down below!" She chimed and Neji sent back a not-so-very-nice finger at her.

Oh, how Konan loved her job as a duty nurse for the night shift.

* * *

"Any idea on why Nara would call us for a staff meeting?" Neji had just returned from sticking his hand inside a sixty-two-year-old lady's private parts. He had a right to be positively miffed and unconcerned about this meeting.

Konan giggled at his aggravated tone, knowing that she was the cause of it. "Don't know but if Nara calls a meeting, it must be important." She knew how lazy and uncaring the Nara was. However, the male was work-oriented so if there was a staff meeting, it was something related to work and fairly important. Not that anybody cared though.

"This will be the last time I deal with testicles ever again." Naruto huffed exasperatedly and the two interns blinked at the annoyed blonde doctor with a weak smile. After experiencing it for themselves, they too wished to never see it again. As in, **ever** again.

Kankuro shrugged helplessly, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall. "Don't shoot the messenger. Konan gave it to me to give it to you. I'm just the middle man in this thing." Naruto shot an unimpressed look at Konan, who merely smiled innocently at the disgruntled doctor. "Oh, please, Naruto, I just gave your cousin-in-law over here a sixty-two-year-old woman, who thinks she has HIV."

Both doctors shot her a dirty look. She glanced at the both of them innocently. "Hey, someone's got to do the dirty work."

"Right," Tenten piped up and the two doctors and one nurse turned to her. "However, Doctor Uzumaki, must I remind you that **I** was the one who patched up the guy's testicles?" Tenten smirked at the flushed doctor while Konan giggled at his reaction. "The two men over here were about to puke when they saw it." She remarked. Naruto and Suigetsu opened their mouths to protest but found that nothing they said would change the fact that she was right.

"Girl power!" Konan high-fived Tenten, who got a curious look from Neji. "Intern, right?" He questioned and Tenten nodded at the male. "Good job. I'm Doctor Hyuuga. Doctor Hyuuga Neji." He introduced and offered a hand for a shake. Tenten's brows furrowed and she turned to Naruto. "Is he-?" Naruto nodded with a grin. "Yup, he's my cousin-in-law."

* * *

On the floor below them, Sasuke was still checking up on the baby. The baby wailed and Sasuke contorted his expression into an impatient one. "Where is pediatrics? We need to start a dialysis* stat." He interrogated a nurse. He stormed out of the room and asked the same question to another nurse.

She looked at him apologetically. "We did call pediatrics but they said we can't treat her. Nara called them to say that the hospital won't be admitting her."

The Uchiha scowled and his temper was boiling internally. Damn Nara! He shook his head and stared at the nurse sternly. "I don't care." He turned to another and grabbed the male nurse by the arm. "Start the dialysis on the baby girl immediately. If anybody asks, tell them Doctor Uchiha ordered it."

"B-But-"

"No questions asked. Go." And that was enough for the young male nurse to scurry away to prepare the baby for the dialysis. After all, nobody wanted to be on the Uchiha's bad side. That's an unwanted death wish unable to be avoided.

Meanwhile, Sasuke already had Nara Shikamaru's name on the top of his hit list.

* * *

Just then, Shikamaru entered the room with Sakura right behind him. Shikamaru had an expressionless face while Sakura had a million-watt grin that could power the entire hospital. The murmuring stopped once the administrator entered their presence. Shikamaru cleared his throat and glanced around. Nobody seemed interested at all. Is this what the night shift has dissolved to without a chief of staff?

Or maybe it's because the absence of the chief of staff has allowed a certain individual to take over. He shot Konan a look and she nodded. "On it." She picked up the phone and pressed a button that connected it to the overhead system. "Doctor Uchiha please report to the staff meeting immediately." Came the announcement overhead.

"So, there is a reason why I called all of you for a staff meeting." He clasped his hands together as he began his speech. To hell with the Uchiha. "Well, first of all, it is not fresh news that hospitals are struggling to survive financially. Two hospitals have already been shut down in Fire country and we might be next." The whispers restarted and Shikamaru let it continue before clearing his throat to regain their attention. "And so, the board promoted me to be this hospital's administrator to solve this problem specifically. The solution to this problem is to cut costs and improve customer satisfaction."

Cue rolling eyes and dreary looks. Would anybody care to show some respect around here?

Ignoring the disinterested faces of his employees, Shikamaru continued, "And to help us do all that is our new chief of staff, Haruno Sakura." He stepped backwards to let Sakura take the floor and she smiled pleasantly at all the people, whom she would soon be working with. Naruto and Tenten started cheering and clapping ecstatically and the rest joined in obligingly. Sakura pinked and shot Naruto and her best gal, Tenten, a warning look that he caught with a cheeky grin and Tenten with a knowing smirk.

"Thank you, Shikamaru-san." That's when everybody except for Tenten and Naruto basically tuned out. Sakura noted their dulling expressions and gulped nervously. Well, they would come to appreciate and love her eventually. "So, first of all, I want to say that I'm so excited to be working with the night shift. I know we're going to do great things and to do all that, I'm going to be introducing a new system that would improve the flow of the night shift."

She presented a tablet with a program already up on it to the audience. "This tablet has a program that has helped the day shift," Immediately, almost everybody groaned significantly. Sakura bit on the inside of her cheek uncertainly. Right, she forgot that the night shift didn't really like the day shift. "The program helps improve our patient efficiency. I'll be instructing you how to use them and in no time, you'll all be experts."

At that moment, an utterly late and broody Sasuke decided to show up. He navigated through a few nurses and doctors before facing an unamused Sakura and an apprehensive Nara Shikamaru. "Sorry for interrupting, sweetheart, but I have to talk to Nara-san right now." Sakura sighed inwardly. She knew that look in his eyes. Someone was going to get pummeled by the end of the night.

"Sasuke-" "It's alright." Shikamaru placed his palm out to show that he would handle this. He glared at the Uchiha before leaving for a secluded room. The Uchiha followed after him and Sakura bit her lip nervously. She knew what Sasuke could do and Shikamaru did not look like the type of person who could go head to head with Sasuke.

The two men entered an empty waiting room and Shikamaru turned to face Sasuke with a stern glint in his eyes. "What did you want to talk about?"

Sasuke scoffed. "You know what I want to talk about." He stared at the administrator with a dangerous fire in his obsidian eyes. "Why are you not admitting the baby?"

Shikamaru knew this was bound to come up again. He sighed exasperatedly and slipped his hands into his pockets lazily. "You admitted her." He deadpanned. Knowing how stubborn the Uchiha was, it was an obvious deed he would do.

"Yes, I did." Sasuke answered back confidently.

"I thought I ordered for her to be sent back to Corpus."

"I deemed her unstable for travel."

"She's fine. That's your own opinion."

"It is not an opinion." Sasuke growled at the Nara. "It is a proper diagnosis from a doctor."

"She is **fine**." Shikamaru repeated once more with emphasis but the Uchiha merely brushed his authority aside and stared him down.

"Upon whose judgment?" The dark-haired male crossed his arms defiantly, staring at Shikamaru through narrowed eyes. "Yours?" He arched a skeptical brow at the Nara, who was ready to protest but didn't have a chance to. "Oh, wait, you only say that because," He sauntered up to the man in a business suit. "You're not a doctor. You're a _businessman_."

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the Uchiha, removing his hands from his pockets and straightening up. Though he still felt little around the well-built male, he was certain that Sasuke would not try anything on him. "I will not tolerate insubordination." He countered and Sasuke smirked, averting his gaze for a moment before turning it back to the Nara a daring light in his eyes.

In a flash, Nara Shikamaru was on the ground unconscious. He supposed that he didn't actually know Uchiha Sasuke very well. Sasuke stared down at the unconscious businessman expressionlessly. He flicked his wrist, relaxing it from the swift punch and shaking his head. "Don't test me." He muttered darkly as he prepared to leave.

The door opened and Sakura was greeted by a passed out Nara and a smug Uchiha. She deadpanned at Sasuke, who sent her a charming smirk. She huffed and wrung her hands frustratedly. "You are so, **so**-" She couldn't even find her words anymore because she was thoroughly done with his flippant actions.

"Welcome to the night shift, Sakura." He patted her head and walked out of the room, facing the rest of his colleagues who were curious as to what happened in that room. With Sakura blocking the entrance, they couldn't see a thing.

"UGH!" Roared an appalled Haruno Sakura.

Well, looks like Sasuke had just successfully gotten on two peoples' nerves. Their boss and their new chief of staff.

* * *

**A/N:**

List of characters in which I have somewhat based off the characters in this story's personality in order of appearance in this chapter:

Paul Cummings – Suigetsu

Krista – Tenten

Kenny – Kankuro

Nurse Ramos – Konan

Drew Alister – Hyuuga Neji

**Medical terms explained:**

Dialysis – a process of removing wastes and excess water from the blood, and is used primarily as an artificial replacement for lost kidney function (Credit: Wikipedia)

**R&R. Ciao!**


	3. New Gun and a Few Wounds

**A/N:** This is very much AU. Relationships between the characters in this story will not entirely reflect the same relationships in the show. To those who are familiar viewers of the show, there will be some parts of the story, where similarities are present. But as 'The Night Shift' is not a completed show, this story will also have different events and a slightly different plot line. I am not plagiarizing a perfectly good show; I am using it as a writing reference.

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'. (Sorry for the long disclaimer and the author's note but I feel complied to warn you about what you're going to be reading.)

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

It was an understatement to say that Nara Shikamaru after awakening from being knocked out was mad at the insubordination he had just received from a certain Uchiha.

No, it was a serious understatement to say that.

"HE IS FIRED! I WANT HIM OUT OF THIS HOSPITAL IMMEDIATELY!"

Nara Shikamaru was enraged. His blood was boiling over. Something that was rare in a rather unbothered person like Shikamaru. Right now, he was _very_ bothered. **Very**.

Sakura bit her lip uncertainly, watching her employer fume inside the confines of his office. Admittedly, Sasuke did go too far. Not only did he defy orders from his boss, he also punched the living daylights out of the guy. Well, having known Sasuke for almost a decade, she wasn't very surprised that Sasuke had the guts to pull what he did. Especially when he knew what would entail.

For example, getting fired. Like, right now.

"Shikamaru-san, let me talk to him." Sakura calmly approached her furious boss. After all, other than Naruto, she was the only other person close enough to Sasuke to be given the right to tell him off. In this situation, Naruto, she knew, wasn't going to be much of a big help since he as well took pleasure in the humiliation of their boss. She was Sasuke's last chance if he wanted to keep his job.

He turned to her with a livid fire in his normally dull eyes. "I want you to override the dialysis." As much as it pained Sakura to deny medical assistance to an innocent baby, she had no choice but to obey her higher-ups. Especially since she didn't have the guts to pull what Sasuke did before. She was too nice.

"I'll try." She replied unsurely. Though she was certain that the Uchiha would actually talk with her, she wasn't very sure he would _listen_ to her.

Shikamaru shot her a stern look and she knew he meant business. "Do it or else I'll seriously fire him." And that meant that this hospital will lose one of their prized doctors. Sakura gulped nervously. She just prayed, **prayed** that Sasuke would listen to her.

* * *

"Great, the dialysis is working." Sasuke smiled pleasantly at the small infant, who was strapped up to a machine. "Call me if anything goes wrong." Sasuke sent the nurse a knowing look and she nodded, returning to write on her clipboard.

He walked out of the room silently and shut the door behind him. It was then that he came face to face with a pair of deep emerald irises and cotton candy colored hair. However, he would have appreciated the smile on her pink lips rather than the deep set frown on her face.

"Sasuke-" He stopped the female with a finger and shot her an expectant look. She huffed and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms at the male. "Sasuke**-kun**," She sent him an are-you-happy look and he smirked, stepping aside for the exit.

"Look, you need to show some respect to those above you." She started out. Oh boy, Sasuke was not ready to hear a lecture.

"Respect is earned, sweetheart." He chimed and Sakura faltered before regaining her speech. "Yeah, whatever, but you cannot run this place like it is your own." She placed a hand on his bicep to stop him from leaving. Sasuke groaned inwardly, sighing as he tried to look everywhere and anywhere but the stern pink-haired female in front of him.

"That's right, you're my boss. I'll remember that." He drawled sarcastically and Sakura frowned, trying to capture his line of sight. "That's not the point." She held his face with her two hands so that he could look into her eyes to see that she was serious. Uncaring obsidian eyes met concerned green ones. The spark between the two ignited yet it was something that neither wanted to further.

"The point is," She started out exasperatedly. "The point is that you **need** to start reflecting on your actions. You are a talented and exceptional doctor. Your skills are extraordinary. But you got kicked out of the army. A perfectly good doctor like you got kicked out in the middle of an ongoing war. What does that tell you, Sasuke-kun?" She sighed, stepping closer towards the Uchiha, who stared down at her expressionlessly. She knew he hated bringing up his past in the army but she had to. It pained her to bring up unfortunate memories and she hated to hurt him. But it was necessary to get her point across.

"I have to discharge her." She saw him about to argue but she quickly cut him off. "**After** she recovers from the dialysis, but you need to think about your actions. What you're doing could compromise the entire hospital. We could shut down. If we admit her, then what about the fifty, the hundreds, the thousands others whom we can't afford to treat?"

"I'll treat them." He muttered and Sakura sighed, her point still not taken. "You can't just do that. I know you want to save lives. I know it's in your blood. However, you need to start controlling your temper and listening to what other people have to say." Sasuke remained silent and Sakura knew that he was brooding over her words. She just hoped that he would heed her words.

He sighed drearily; grabbing both of her hands and setting them back down. He sent her a meaningful look before patting her head with a half-smile. "The army didn't kick me out. I left on my own accord." He said. Sakura frowned worriedly; it was a reason that Sasuke had tried to make both Naruto and Sakura believe in. But out of the three of them, only Sasuke forced himself to believe in that reason. The two of them knew otherwise.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and bent down to her height. "I can take care of myself. But thank you for being concerned for me. Even though I don't deserve it." That wasn't right. Sakura cared not because she thought he deserved it but because she _just cared_. There was no 'why' to it. Even if Sasuke and she did not have a past together, she would have still cared.

"Sasuke-" "Now, I need to go back to work and so do you, boss." He patted her shoulder and pushed through the two beige swinging doors, leaving Sakura alone to her thoughts. She stared at the ground, an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach.

Sakura cared. She _really_ did.

* * *

There were times when Yamanaka Ino hated her job as an attending psychiatrist. One of those times had to be this.

"GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!" _Bang! Bang! Bang!_ That was the sound of a mental patient slamming down his broken arm in a cast on the metal counter of a room. "Okarashii-san, please calm down." Ino tried her best to restrain the scrawny male but to no avail.

"NO! NO! THEY'RE OUT TO KILL ME!" Her mental patient screamed. She pursed her lips together frustratedly. Yes, she really hated her job right now, especially since it's a patient that comes back once a month just to screw with her night. _Great_.

The curtain pushed aside and revealed a greatly surprised Haruno Sakura. "Is…everything alright in here?" Sakura carefully approached the insane teenager. The teenager stopped banging his cast on the counter and turned to her with wide, fearful eyes. "No, it's not alright. 'Ninjas' are out to kill me." Replied the male.

Sakura's eyes widened at the answer and she nodded at the patient, who returned to slamming his cast against the metal counter. What to do? "Um, 'Ninjas'? You mean that famous anime on TV?" She started out and the teenager turned his attention back to her with surprised eyes. "Yes, 'Ninjas'! It's my favorite anime!" He exclaimed brightly.

Sakura knew what to do now. She had to thank those hours of babysitting her cousins. "Come to think of it," He squinted his eyes at the pink-haired doctor. "You look like one of the characters." Sakura acted surprised while her eyes flickered to the blonde behind him. Ino nodded and silently paced backwards, grabbing a syringe with a sedative inside.

"I do? Which one?" The male contemplated for a moment. "Oh, I think it's the medic ninja. She's really cool! She has super strength and cool healing powers and –OW!" He yelped, turning to glare at Ino, who had successfully stuck the syringe in his arm. Returning to converse animatedly with Sakura, the male's eyes slowly drooped and his speech drawled as he fell asleep in the arms of Ino.

Ino with the help of Sakura dragged the unconscious teenager next to the bed and lifted him up onto it. A nurse entered the room and took over, allowing Ino and Sakura a chance to escape from the deranged teenager. Ino stepped out of the room with Sakura, trailing behind with a friendly smile. "I'm Haruno Sakura." She offered a hand to shake and Ino shook it with a polite grin. "I know. My new boss." Ino joked and Sakura scoffed light-heartedly.

"I think the term 'colleagues' is better to use." Sakura crossed her arms as she watched Ino sign a few papers. "I'm Yamanaka Ino. And thanks for that." She said, referring back to what had happened with Okarashii-san.

Sakura shook her head and shrugged casually. "I have to thank my cousins for that. Otherwise, I wouldn't even know what he was talking about." Ino chuckled and closed the binder, slotting it into a metal shelf. "Maybe I should start brushing up on my anime." She joked.

"Don't know if anime is related to psychiatry." Sakura played along and Ino smiled, knowing that she would be good friends with this new doctor. "Anyway, if you need anything," Sakura sent her a meaningful look. "And I mean **anything**, talk to me and I'll see what I can do."

Ino nodded with a pleasant grin. "Well, that's nice. There are a lot of things I need. Like a holding room, a sight nurse, and better access to the pharmacy. These are things I should have had since-"

"Day one. Right." Sakura finished her sentence with a sheepish grin. "I'm sorry that we didn't get those to you but," She shot her a knowing wink. "I'll get that to you soon enough."

Ino sent her a grateful look as she stepped away to continue with her work. "Thank you so much. You do that and I'll buy you coffee and send you a free spa voucher as well." Ino smirked at her and Sakura giggled, waving to the blonde as she hurried off.

"I'd love that." She called after the psychiatrist. Well, so far, she has made one new friend, who isn't Naruto, Sasuke, or Tenten.

Speaking about Tenten…

* * *

"Welcome to the break room." Neji pushed open the metal doors for Tenten and Suigetsu to revel in the awesomeness of their break room on the roof.

"Woah, this place is cool!" Suigetsu gasped at the Christmas lights and lanterns hanging above them. A make-shift tent was set up in the center with chairs and tables littered around. Some coolers were open, filled with ice and soda (because drinking on the job is stupid). There was a half-basketball court with the pole standing nice and tall on the side. On the far side, there was a boxing bag stand. Music played lightly in the air and several doctors and nurses were scattered around laughing and chatting.

"I can't believe **this** is the break room." Tenten glanced around amazed at the setting. Neji smirked, patting her shoulder. "It's night shift strictly. Meaning no day shift around here." Tenten beamed at him (because she admitted inwardly that Neji was _so_ hot).

"Heads up, Hyuuga!" Neji caught a basketball with his hands and raised a brow at the challenging Uchiha. He shook his head, dribbling the ball on the ground and shot from where he was. He made it in and a few people around him whooped and cheered for him. Neji smirked and joined in the game, leaving Tenten behind to indulge in his hotness. Neji didn't need to know that, Tenten mused.

The door to the break room opened and Sakura stepped inside with a knowing look shot at Tenten. If Sakura was impressed by the break room, she didn't show it. She strolled over to Tenten with her hands in her pocket, watching her best friend ogle the white-eyed, long haired brunette doctor. Shaking her head exasperatedly, she nudged Tenten, who jumped when she realized that Sakura was next to her.

"You didn't tell me the doctors at this hospital were hot." Tenten slung an arm around Sakura, who rolled her eyes sardonically.

"Tenten, don't tell me you became a doctor so that you could drool on hot doctors." Sakura shot her friend a doubtful look to which Tenten replied with an innocent grin. "Partially." Sakura laughed and pushed the girl off of her. "Weirdo."

Originally, Tenten wanted to be a prosecutor. She had spent three years of her life studying the subject. Then, slowly, she started to waver and found a love for medicine when she attended a doctor's conference with Sakura. Forensics analyzed bodies after they have been killed or maimed. However, the question that haunted Tenten after that conference was could she save lives? She wanted to be a prosecutor because she wanted to save lives. However, being at that conference, she realized that there was another way to save lives: Becoming a doctor.

Tenten had then pleaded with her father and her family to pay for her to go to medical school. It took a while but they soon gave in and sent her off to the same medical school that Sakura attended. She however was many years Sakura's junior and had to work even harder to become a doctor. So, here she was. Best friends and same age as her boss.

"Watch out!" Sakura yelped as a ball almost hit her in the head. _Almost_ hit her in the head. Tenten stared at the dark-haired male doctor, staring down at Sakura with the ball in one of his hands. Tenten knew the guy. He was Uchiha Sasuke, the one Naruto called teme. However, she also knew _a few_ other things.

"Watch out, sweetheart." Sasuke smirked at a shell-shocked Sakura. Sakura blinked at his obsidian eyes and raised a brow amused at him. "Hm, thanks for saving me, oh knight in shining armor." Sakura sang sarcastically and Sasuke let out a 'Tch' before continuing with the game. Tenten silently shuffled up to the pink headed female.

"Soooo," She drawled curiously and Sakura rolled her eyes, already expecting what is to come. "You and Doctor Uchiha? Anything you want to tell me?" Tenten winked at Sakura, who groaned in annoyance at her best friend. "Nothing that concerns you and your two-bunned head. We're _just_ friends." She emphasized.

"Do friends flirt? Or do they call each other sweetheart? Or do they save each other from a flying ball?"

Sakura's patience was wearing thin and Tenten knew that. Sakura almost forgot that Tenten loved getting on her nerves. Reminding her that recently, everybody liked to get on her nerves. Starting with the number one nerve-aggravator: Uchiha Sasuke.

"We are not flirting. It's just how we talk. And _he's_ the one calling me sweetheart. Apparently, he finds it funny to do so. And would you want my face to be pummeled by a ball?" Sakura raised an apprehensive eyebrow at the brunette, daring her to answer. Tenten chuckled sheepishly. "I guess not."

The door pushed open and Konan appeared at the doorway with a stern look. "Neji, you're up. GSW* in trauma room* one." Neji bounced the ball away and grabbed his stethoscope, ready to go. Sakura sent Tenten a questioning look when the other made a move to follow and she smiled innocently.

"May I go see the hot doctor patch up a GSW?"

...

"No."

* * *

The monitor was beeping and Neji was in an utter disarray of confusion. The GSW, known as gunshot wound, victim was unconscious and he had patched up the wound already. But why was the monitor beeping as if the victim was about to die?

"BP and heart rate are dropping." The nurse sent him a helpless look. Even she didn't know what was going on. Neji groaned, removing the bandage to check if he had missed anything. At that moment, Sakura entered the curtain enclosed room with a worried expression.

"What's going on?" She slipped on a pair of surgical gloves immediately, awaiting details from Neji. Neji clucked his tongue cluelessly. "It's a simple GSW, removed the bullet and patched him up. BP and heart rate are dropping for an unknown reason." He answered effortlessly.

"Fragments?" Sakura questioned him and Neji bit back a snarky smile. He did say he removed the bullet and he meant he removed the _whole_ bullet.

"I removed the bullet whole. No fragments." He replied, shaking his head. Sakura sent him a deadpanned look as if to say that's-not-what-I-meant.

"**Bone** fragments, not bullet." She emphasized and Neji was left in shock. It had never occurred to him that that was the cause. Sakura sighed and gave him a condescending look, which she probably didn't even know she gave him. But Neji caught the look and immediately he was ticked off at the ex-day shift doctor.

Sakura reached for the ultrasound and squirted the gel around his upper torso area near the proximity of the wound. She pressed the transducer over the gel, smearing it in the process of searching for the bone fragment. It took her a moment or two as she moved the transducer around before finding the problem. "There you go. Bullet hits bone and fragments travel. His spleen* has been hit." She pointed out the spot on the screen before pulling back and taking off her gloves.

"He needs to be at the OR* stat." She hurried as she moved to pull the plugs on his monitor, cutting in between Neji and the patient's bed. Neji backed off and flung his gloves off indignantly. He did not like that she had embarrassed him like that. It made him feel as if he didn't know a thing about being a doctor. And he sure as hell did not like her know-it-all attitude.

"Hyuuga, help out?" Sasuke gestured for the male to head on over to another trauma room. Neji would _gladly_ help him out. After all, anything he could learn from Sasuke would be useful when he hits the battlefield as a war medic. The Uchiha was way more skilled than any doctor in this hospital could be.

He stepped into the room and grabbed a pair of protective eye wear. The monitor was beeping and nurses were all around, grabbing tools and whatever they needed. They made way for Neji to stand at the back of the bed, where he lifted the patient's head in the proper position. "Fifteen-year-old girl found with one too many birth control pills next to her; unresponsive." Sasuke filled him in.

"OD*. Let's start with the intubation*." Neji called it and the nurses hurried for the tube. "So what's got you riled up? I saw you flinging your gloves around like a piece of crap." Sasuke mused and Neji chuckled humorlessly. "Well, it was a simple GSW and I screwed it up. Almost killed the guy." He stuck the thin tube down her throat and began the intubation.

"I should have caught it, man. I mean, I've seen GSW's my whole life." Neji grimaced. Sasuke was quick to correct him. "_Battlefield_ wounds are different from civilian wounds." Neji shook his head distractedly. "Whatever, so your girlfriend shows up and tells me that a bone fragment has hit his spleen. Now, that's good and all and I'm thankful that she saved the guy. But you should have seen the look on her face when she said it. It was as if she was calling me an idiot for not catching it." Sasuke snorted as if he knew Sakura would do that.

"Sakura would do that but the catch is that she doesn't even know she does it. She's just that dedicated to her work. And Neji," The male grunted in acknowledgement. "She's not my girlfriend." Sasuke said. And this time, Neji was the one who snorted. "If you'd tone down the flirting-" "We don't flirt." Came the indignant reply of the Uchiha.

"Whatever," Sighed the Hyuuga. "But I seriously did not like the way she set me up to be some punk." Neji complained.

"Sakura has been through four years and a massive shooting and village plague. She's tough." Sasuke glanced up from his work, staring sincerely into Neji's white-washed eyes. "She's the one I'd trust with my life." The monitor stopped beeping rapidly and the nurses backed off in relief. The patient was stabilized.

Sasuke calmly flicked off his gloves and eye wear. "You spent more or less a half a year as a war medic, not long enough to be a big shot surgeon. Sakura on the other hand is a good person to learn from. She knows stuff people on the battlefield don't." Sasuke shot him a smirk and Neji nodded in return, removing his eye wear and gloves. The two doctors left the room and both of their eyes landed on the pink headed doctor, speaking intently to a nurse about some paperwork.

"Take it from me, Hyuuga." Neji turned to Sasuke inquisitively. Sasuke paid no heed to him and continued staring at the green eyed life saver. "I've lived half my life with Sakura and I've been a victim to a lot of those looks. The same one she probably sent you just now. But Sakura…" The Uchiha trailed off in thought.

Sakura had finished her conversation with the nurse and returned to glancing at the binder she had in her arms. When she looked up, she caught Sasuke's gaze on her and narrowed her eyes dangerously. She shut the binder and pointed at the Uchiha, mouthing 'paperwork now' to him. He chuckled and observed how she pouted and walked towards Ino, who approached her with a smile and some more paperwork. She really wanted him to finish the paperwork, huh?

"What about Sakura?" Neji's questioning voice allowed him to realize that he had just spaced out on pinky. _Great_. Sasuke shook his head with a wry smirk and faced the Hyuuga next to him.

"Sakura's a nice girl once you get to know her. She can be a know-it-all but she does it for your own good. She likes to be good at what she does. That's just-" He fumbled around with his words for a moment before coming eye to eye with an approaching Haruno Sakura. "_Sakura_ for you."

She slammed her palm on his chest, effectively making him stumble backwards a little. Sakura's strength was not to be taken lightly. She glared at him heatedly while Sasuke shot her an innocent look. She narrowed her eyes at him and changed her palm into a fist, which she gladly pummeled into his right shoulder. "Paperwork, Sasuke-kun, paperwork." She reminded him fiercely before walking away after a last shove.

Neji found it amusing how easily the Uchiha let the temperamental pink-headed female doctor push him around _literally_. He watched as Sasuke glanced backwards after the doctor with an amused smile dancing on his lips. It was even _more_ amusing for Neji then because Uchiha Sasuke was only seen with smirks or really, **really** expressionless faces. It seemed to the Hyuuga that Uchiha Sasuke smiled a little more than necessary when he was around the doctor, whose appearance reminded him of spring time. It seemed to Neji that Sasuke took joy in teasing the spring time doctor. You know what Neji calls that? Flirting.

"You guys are **so** flirting with each other. It's not even that subtle." Neji remarked and Sasuke shot a glare at the Hyuuga. Sasuke was a little sensitive when it came to anything that had to do with romance and Haruno Sakura. Sasuke just couldn't stop himself when Sakura was just so _easy_ to tick off. Flirting? No. More like _getting on Haruno Sakura's nerves_-ing. "We're **not **flirting, you nitwit." He snapped and Neji chuckled disbelieving.

"Sure, sure, you're not, _Sasuke-kun_." Neji teased only to get punched in the gut by the Uchiha, who was unimpressed by his fail imitation of Sakura. After all, only Sakura gets to call him that. Not even Neji, who did it out of mirth and ended up getting pummeled for it. And he wasn't even sorry for that.

Neji should have known how sacred the name was to him. Nobody but Sakura calls him that name. **Nobody**.

* * *

**A/N:**

List of all the characters in which I have somewhat based off the characters in this story's personality:

TC Callahan – Uchiha Sasuke

Jordan Alexander – Haruno Sakura

Topher Zia – Uzumaki Naruto

Janet Zia (Topher's wife) – Hyuuga Hinata

Michael Ragosa – Nara Shikamaru

Landry de la Cruz – Yamanaka Ino

Drew Alister – Hyuuga Neji

Krista – Tenten

Paul Cummings – Suigetsu

Kenny – Kankuro

Nurse Ramos – Konan

Who will play Scott Clemens will be revealed later. Rick Lincoln's role will be reprised in a different way. Those who have watched the show please refrain from giving out spoilers for the time being since so far, I'm basing it off the episodes of the series. Soon though, the story will make a different turn and there will be no need for me to hunt down spoilers.

And if anyone's wondering, yes, we're still in the middle of the first night shift. It's probably around ten or eleven at night. The shift has not ended just yet.

**Medical terms explained:**

GSW – stands for Gunshot wound

Trauma room – a room in a trauma center that is equipped and staffed to provide comprehensive emergency medical services to patients suffering traumatic injuries (Credit: Wikipedia)

Spleen – an organ found in all vertebrates that acts like a blood filter; brownish in color and is found in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen (Credit: Wikipedia)

OR – operation room

OD – overdosage

Intubation – the insertion of a tube into an internal or external orifice of the body for the purpose of adding or removing fluids

**R&R. Bye!**


	4. Purpose

**A/N:** This is very much AU. Relationships between the characters in this story will not entirely reflect the same relationships in the show. To those who are familiar viewers of the show, there will be some parts of the story, where similarities are present. But as 'The Night Shift' is not a completed show, this story will also have different events and a slightly different plot line. I am not plagiarizing a perfectly good show; I am using it as a writing reference.

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'. (Sorry for the long disclaimer and the author's note but I feel complied to warn you about what you're going to be reading.)

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

"Sakura, do I have a new holding room?" Sakura froze as Ino approached her with a playful smile. Sakura couldn't answer her and Ino rolled her eyes, realizing that the doctor had taken her seriously. She lightly nudged her with an airy giggle.

"I'm just joking." She observed how Sakura visibly relaxed and concluded that the girl was way too serious about her job. It was habit of hers to come to conclusions about people. Thanks to her job, that is.

"Obviously you can't give me those in an hour or two." Ino raised her brow at Sakura, who nodded with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I have a problem with holding out on promises. I don't like to keep people waiting." She admitted and Ino blinked at her unsurprised. "You don't seem like a person to do that."

Sakura shrugged with a weak smile. "Runs in the family. Walk with me?" She motioned for the blonde girl to accompany her and Ino accepted, falling into step beside the pink-haired doctor. "Family problems?" Ino questioned. She had noticed Sakura's reaction to her own statement and it got her curious.

Sakura hesitated before chuckling at Ino's prying questions. "Don't we all have family problems?" She mused airily and Ino nodded. Yes, she did as well. However… "Some problems are bigger than others." She countered and Sakura paused, mulling it over in her head. "Right." She bobbed her head, agreeing with the psychiatrist. Ino noticed how she had avoided answering her question and made a mental note to ask the girl about it on another other.

"How's the new job?" Ino asked as they turned the corner. Sakura grinned wryly. "It's going…well for me. Everyone's nice and chill. I love the atmosphere. Not everybody has warmed up to me yet but that'll settle in no time. Other than the fact that Sasuke gets on my nerves every minute, overall, the job's fine." Sakura shrugged light-heartedly.

Ino arched a curious eyebrow. "Oh, you don't get along with Doctor Uchiha?" Now, that's not a surprise. It's not shocking news that Sasuke would be causing trouble for the new chief of staff. Sakura rolled her eyes lazily. "It's a long story."

Ino grinned, her interest piqued. "I _love_ long stories." Sakura shook her head at the psychiatrist with a playful smile on her lips. "Is this a social norm for you? Bringing your job into your social life?" Ino pouted, disappointed that she won't be hearing about the two doctors' past together. "If you feel like sharing," The elevator dinged and Sakura strolled inside. "My office is always open."

Sakura laughed absurdly, holding the 'open' button for a while longer. "Sure. Breakfast?" Ino nodded with a pleasant smile. "I'll pick you up after work." Sakura winked and lifted her finger off the button, the doors closing immediately.

* * *

"Yo, Doctor Uzumaki?" Naruto halted in his steps, hearing Kankuro call for his services. He handed the doctor a clipboard with a patient's information on it. "The janitor brought in his daughter. She's been complaining about some stomach issues. Check it out?" Naruto's eyes traveled to a timid eighteen-year-old girl, clutching on to her stomach with her father by her side.

"Yeah, sure." He accepted the clipboard gladly. "Tenten, Suigetsu." He called the two interns over and they nodded, following after him. He approached the girl and her father with a friendly smile. "Jori, your daughter?" He greeted, offering a hand to shake.

The janitor, known as Jori, smiled worriedly. "Yeah, Doctor Uzumaki, this is Aya. Are you the doctor they assigned to my daughter?" Naruto grinned brightly, nodding. "Yup, Aya, right?" The girl nodded timidly. "Alright, follow me." He guided her to an empty trauma room and sat her down on a chair. She glanced around nervously, slouching a little because of the pain. Naruto noticed and grimaced a little. "Does it hurt really badly?" She nodded and he sighed sympathetically, slipping on surgical gloves.

"Alright, now, I'm Doctor Uzumaki. These are the interns following me around, Tenten and Suigetsu." Both sent her a small wave. She bobbed her head in acknowledgement meekly. Naruto bent down on one knee and smiled reassuringly at her. "I'm just going to feel around the area and you tell me where the pain is coming from." She nodded and his hands paused in front of her shirt. "May I?" He asked out of courtesy and she let out a small squeak, "Yes."

Naruto calmly lifted her shirt and she held the fabric down so that it would not obstruct his work. Immediately, a large, awkward bump came to view and Naruto bit back a wince. It was situated on her lower stomach area just above her hip bone. He blinked at it, studying the bump for a moment before pressing on it lightly. She hissed and jumped a little and he pulled back. "I assume that's where it hurts." She nodded fearfully and Naruto continued feeling around the bump more.

"I'm sorry for bothering you guys with this. It's just that it's been hurting a lot lately and I can't get things done." She spoke for the first time and Tenten tilted her head at her curiously. "Has it always been this size?" Aya nodded and glanced downwards at the bump. "For years it has been growing larger and larger." Suigetsu uncrossed his arms and frowned deeply. "What have other doctors said about your condition?"

Aya bit her lip unsurely before whimpering a little. "That they can't treat me because I have no insurance." All three doctors or one doctor and two soon-to-be doctors scowled. "That's not right at all." Naruto grumbled under his breath, pulling his hands away from her mid-section. He took off his gloves and sighed, a little annoyed and miffed. She pulled down her shirt and rested her hands over the bump.

"Alright, Aya, just sit tight and we'll figure out what's wrong." Naruto rose and shot both the interns solemn looks. It was a look that didn't feel right on Naruto. From the two interns' experience, Naruto was always hyper and absolutely happy-go-lucky. He joked around a lot and laughed a lot. The times he isn't laughing or grinning are when he has to deal with HIV or testicle related patients or he's occupied with an operation or surgery.

They left the room and Tenten immediately jumped on it. "What's wrong with her stomach?"

Naruto shook his head cluelessly. "I have no idea. My best guess is it's a tumor but we can't be too sure." He paused and let out a dreary sigh. "I'll set up an MRI* somehow." Even if they couldn't treat her, Naruto would find a way to do so.

* * *

"Um, Doctor Uchiha…" Sasuke turned to the new intern, Suigetsu, with an unintentional dark stare. Suigetsu gulped nervously. Uchiha Sasuke was the big boss in the medical world. He had heard lots of things about him, both good and bad. But the good was always about him doing the coolest stuff and making miracle saves.

"Doctor Uzumaki wants to set up an MRI and a blood work* for the janitor's daughter, Aya. But tech called and said no because she has no insurance. We need Nara-san's approval for both to be put through." Suigetsu explained, fearing the glare in Sasuke's eyes.

"She might have a tumor." Tenten chimed from the side. Rather than being afraid of the Uchiha's glare, she found it amusing. She knew how the Uchiha wasn't all that unemotional and cold when he was around people he knew very well like Naruto, Neji, and Sakura. _Especially_ Sakura. And she did hear from Sakura once before that Sasuke was born with a piercing stare. So even if he isn't angry or irritated, he naturally looks angry or irritated. What did Naruto call it? Ah, an **eternal Uchiha** **bitch face**.

"Hn." The male grunted, his dark orbs traveling to the administrator speaking to a nurse. He pushed off the counter with a set expression. He was going to speak to that Nara. Leaving the two interns behind, he approached Shikamaru with a scary expression. The nurse he was talking to walked away and Shikamaru noticed the approaching Uchiha with a deep set frown. Shikamaru on the other hand did not want to speak to the Uchiha.

Sasuke halted in front of him and pushed aside a room door, gesturing for the both of them to talk in private. Shikamaru raised his brow questioningly but he entered the room with his guard up. He did not want to fall victim to another sucker punch. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"You're taking away our ability to do the tests we need. We can't diagnose patients because of that." He started out. Shikamaru groaned; the damn Uchiha still did not get his point of view.

"Patients who can't afford to be treated **get** minimum treatment. If you were present at the start of the staff meeting, you would have learned that this hospital is on the brink of shutting down. There is a reason why I was promoted and that is to keep the hospital up and running. There is no other way around it." Shikamaru argued. He had a point. The hospital could not stay open any longer if they continued treating patients for free.

But Sasuke was a life-saver and not a businessman. Live-savers save as many people as they can. Businessmen save only a calculated certain amount of people to save themselves. "Then shut the hospital down right now." Sasuke crossed him arms unimpressed. "But you know you can't because we're the only trauma unit for five cities. If you shut this place down, where will people go? Out of the country?"

Shikamaru sighed exasperatedly. Damn thick-headed Uchiha… "That's not what the board thinks, alright? I'm trying to save this place as well but your actions jeopardize this entire hospital!" Sasuke tensed for a moment. _What you're doing could compromise the entire hospital. We could shut down._ Sakura's words rang in his mind and he shut his eyes to block them out. It was the same exact thing Sakura was warning him about.

"What," He started out painfully. "What do I do to jeopardize this hospital? Save lives?"

Shikamaru chuckled dryly. "You save lives, yes. But that construction worker? If he died, this hospital would be slammed with a lawsuit. I cannot deal with that in the situation we are in."

"He **didn't** die."

"I know. And that's great. You saved his life. However, you broke every single legal law, pulling out that pole-"

"Every single **legal** law, not medical. I saved his life ultimately."

"Yes, you did. But legal or medical, it doesn't matter now."

"So, I should have left him to die."

Shikamaru scoffed frustratedly. "Don't make me out to be a cruel, cold businessman."

"But that's what you are, right?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Shikamaru, who in turn growled in response.

"Excuse me?"

"You are a cruel, cold businessman." Sasuke repeated. "You would rather deny a dialysis to an infant than to treat her and lose a hundred or a thousand bucks? You would rather leave a dying man with a pole through his mid-section than to save his life and risk the hospital to a lawsuit? You would rather disapprove a blood work and a MRI to a young girl who might have a tumor than to treat her without insurance and risk maybe a lawsuit and some money?"

"Uchiha-"

"Nara, if my actions put this hospital at risk, then there's something wrong with the world. A hospital built to save lives ends up denying saving lives because of what? Financial problems? Legal vulnerability?" Sasuke shut his eyes for a moment, calming himself down. He really didn't want to knock out his boss twice in a row.

Shikamaru was silent. Inwardly, he agreed with Sasuke. He understood his point. If he had a choice, he would've told the board to suck it and dare them to close this hospital. But he wasn't that gutsy and neither did he have a choice. Sasuke was right. Businessmen had cold hearts. They cared about the money and not about the people. If their money source was weakening, they'd shut it down to find a new one. Shikamaru was torn between business and compassion. Yes, Sasuke was right. A hospital's purpose is to save lives. A businessman's purpose is to make more money. However, if he continued to let this hospital go down the drain, then there would be no hospital to save lives.

"However," The Uchiha's voice pierced through the tense silence. Shikamaru's attention snapped to Sasuke. His voice sounded tired and reluctant. "If you believe that it is my fault, my selfish desire to save lives putting this hospital at risk of closing down…" Daring obsidian eyes met emotionless narrow brown eyes. "Then fire me."

Shikamaru though shocked was about to respond when a knocking on the door came and Kankuro poked his head in with a grave expression. He sent an acknowledging glance over at Shikamaru before turning to Sasuke. "Doctor Uchiha, multi-car accident down at the main highway, Naruto needs you with him. Chopper's up top." He explained and Sasuke nodded. "Hn, I'll be there." He shot Shikamaru one last look before leaving the room in a hurry.

Kankuro glanced at a conflicted Shikamaru. "So," He clucked his tongue uncertainly. "Are you going to fire Sasuke?"

The Nara blinked at him blankly before running his fingers in his hair with a long sigh. "We'll see what happens after the medevac*."

* * *

The two doctors ran out of the glass doors and on to the helipad. The winds were gusty and blowing madly. It was a telltale sign that a huge storm was on its way. The two doctors clambered up the chopper. Both wearing their safety belts and headphones. The chopper began to lift off.

"It's pretty bad out there." Naruto hollered over the propellers.

"Let's go." Sasuke muttered and Naruto shut the door behind him. Sasuke followed suit with the other door and the two began to fly off into the dark midnight sky.

"_Lift off now. Fifteen minutes bound for main highway."_

* * *

The chopper landed and the two doctors jumped out of the flying machine with their paramedic jackets on. An officer immediately rushed to them and began to fill them in. "A cab ran into an SUV. Cab driver's got minor lacerations*. He's alright. The driver of the SUV has broken ribs. Paramedics already got him. It's the kid in the SUV. We didn't want to move him so we called you. See him for yourself."

"Save my brother! You've got to help him!" The older brother cried from the ambulance and Sasuke nodded, a memory flashing in his mind. He quickly pushed away any thoughts and focused on the kid in the car. The car was leaning off the side of the road and the cab was a little further off. Firefighters, paramedics, and a few officers surrounded the scene but made way for the two doctors once they saw them approaching.

"Doors are jammed. You have to go through the sun roof." With that being relayed to them, Sasuke jumped up on top of the SUV and hung over the sun roof. Naruto peeked inside through an open window. Inside was a young boy about nine to ten. His head was tilted to the side, leaning against the door. His eyes stared blankly into space. Blood marred the side of his head that was leaning against the door. His limbs lay limp on his side and his body did not make a move.

"Hey, Akira, hey, I'm Sasuke. This is Naruto." He introduced. "You're scared. I know. But you need to brave, 'kay?" Sasuke gently laid his fingers on the side of his exposed neck. "Can you move your fingers for me?" The boy lifted his fingers as a sign to show that he understood the doctor. "Great, you're doing great." He lifted his hands off his neck and nodded at the boy. "We'll take care of you, alright? You're gonna be out of here soon. Be right back." Sasuke lifted himself away from the sun roof and sat on the top, facing Naruto.

"So?" Naruto lifted an expectant eyebrow. Sasuke grimaced. "It's bad. His skull has separated from his spinal column." "How?" "He's moving differently from his breaths." Sasuke answered smoothly.

"God, how's the kid still alive?" A firefighter exclaimed in surprise. Sasuke turned to him. "His neck muscles are holding his skull in place. But he still has motor activity extremities*. His spinal column's still severed. We're gonna have to sedate him and move him out of here before the storm hits." Sasuke shifted back to his spot over the roof and leaned back down.

Naruto faced the firefighter. "We're gonna need to make a mini body board to fit in there. We need blankets. We need to make blocks to stabilize the head and neck." The firefighter nodded in understanding. "Let's go." Naruto left with the firefighter to get what they needed.

Sasuke leaned in and faced the young boy, his eyes half-lidded. "We'll take care of you."

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Neji led both Tenten and Suigetsu to a hospital van parked at the back of the threshold. With Naruto away with Sasuke on a dispatch, the two interns were left to roam free. Neji opened the back door and a horrid stench escaped from the vehicle. Both stepped back with a disgusted grimace.

"Holy shit, it smells like my great aunt's home." Tenten commented, coughing at the putrid smell.

"Did your great aunt die at home?" Suigetsu asked innocently on the side, his palm slapped over his face.

Tenten shook her head, covering her nose. "Nope, ten of my relatives did."

"Okay, that's nice to know." Came Suigetsu's freaked out reply.

"My family's weird." She muttered. She turned to Neji with a pleading look in her eyes. "Do we really have to do this?" Neji smirked at her evilly. "Yup, I did it _all_ last year." Tenten groaned in reply. "Fire country law states that when old folks make the trip to the other side, only MD can declare them dead." Both interns shot him an 'are-you-seriously-kidding-me' look and Neji shrugged innocently. "Hey, don't blame me. Blame the country and its legal system."

"Alright, let's do this." Tenten was the first to muster up enough courage and lung power to do the stupid task. Suigetsu nodded, unwilling to lose to a girl. "Yeah, let's do this." Was his voice _shaking_? What?

Tenten tentatively stepped inside and Suigetsu followed suit uncertainly. While Tenten was thinking about how nasty it smelled in here, Suigetsu on the other hand was thinking about how he was going to see a dead old guy very soon. Tenten turned to the trembling intern beside her and nodded determinedly. "Okay, on three." Suigetsu started the countdown albeit trembling like a baby.

"One."

"Two. Wait, Suigetsu, there's-"

"Three."

Suigetsu pulled the blanket aside and immediately a live person jumped from the bed.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Suigetsu screamed. The live person was revealed to be Kankuro, who was making scary sounds just to scare the cowardly intern. More of their colleagues popped up with phones videoing the whole scene. Neji merely shut the door with a chuckle.

The van was filled with screams of horror and screams of delight when suddenly two thuds and groans were heard simultaneously. Everyone outside blinked in confusion and Neji opened the doors to the van. Two limp bodies rolled off the van and everyone's eyes widened at the sight. Tenten huffed irritatedly and crossed her arms, staring down at the two unconscious males on the concrete.

"Did you kill them?" Neji asked tentatively, blinking at the sight below him.

Tenten chuckled dryly, jumping off the van. "Nope, just knocked them out for a while. Some smelling sauce will do the trick." She shrugged and placed a hand on Neji's shoulder with a tight-lipped smile. "Next time you want to prank us, make sure Kankuro remembers that blankets don't magically move up and down when there's a dead person underneath it."

"What about Suigetsu?" Tenten turned around and glanced at the sleeping white-haired fellow intern. She turned around, facing Neji with an impish grin. "He was screaming too much."

It was then and there that Neji decided that he and Tenten were going to be great friends.

* * *

Neji walked out of the break room with a cup of coffee in his hands still chuckling over the somewhat failed prank on the interns. Tenten trailed after him with a cup of tea instead. "Oh, come on, both Kankuro _and_ Suigetsu won't talk to me after what I did. I don't think it's that funny after all." She complained as Neji kept on giggling to himself about it.

He turned to her with an amused smile on his lips. "They're just mad that a _girl_ knocked them out." Tenten grumbled with a pout. "I had to do what I had to do." She reasoned lamely and Neji just burst out laughing. Tenten rolled her eyes and took a step forward only to stop when she saw Aya packing her stuff.

"Aya?" She came over and Neji followed after her. Aya stopped packing her stuff and faced Tenten nervously. Tenten sat down beside the girl; Neji stood behind her. "Where are you going?" Tenten questioned her. Aya sent her a tight-lipped smile and grabbed her bag. "A lady told me they couldn't do the test because I had no insurance."

Tenten breathed out incredulously and set her cup of tea down. "Aya," She placed a hand over the girl's frail ones. "Doctor Uzumaki told me specifically not to let you leave." Aya's grip on her bag loosened and Tenten smiled amiably at the timid girl. "If anybody comes up to you, just…" Tenten searched for an idea before finding one. "Just start gagging."

Neji chuckled behind her amusedly at her idea but really? What else could she do? Aya had to use any way to remain at the hospital. "Gagging?" Whispered Aya. Tenten nodded, confident about her idea. "Gagging. But you have to be good, you know? We've seen people throwing up left and right around here."

"Um, okay." The girl mumbled uncertainly but she covered her mouth and started belching, trying to act out a great gagging scene.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you alright, miss? I think you need to remain here until Doctor Uzumaki returns." Neji patted her back jokingly, sending her a smile that meant that her act was foolproof. Aya beamed at Neji and Tenten rolled her eyes at Neji's joke. "If Doctor Hyuuga believed in it, I'm sure anyone else would." She encouraged.

Aya nodded and smiled gratefully at Tenten. "Thank you." Tenten rose to her feet, grabbing her cup of tea. "No problem. Just hang out around here, 'kay? If you're hungry or thirsty, go bother Suigetsu or Kankuro." She winked playfully at Aya, who giggled in return. The two doctors walked away from Aya with a light heart, praying that she would be approved despite having no insurance.

"Gagging, really?"

Tenten shot a glare at the white-eyed male. "I don't see you coming up with better things!" She countered.

"But seriously? Gagging?"

"Neji."

"What?"

"Shut up."

* * *

Back at the main highway multi-car accident, Sasuke was hanging upside down over the sun roof. His arms strained and his muscles tensed from holding the kid's head in the right position. They had managed to slip in a mini-bright orange (personally chosen by Naruto) body board in between the boy and the car seat. He was strapped in already. Naruto held the boy to stabilize him and a firefighter came in through the back window to place a blanket wrapped up like a block behind the boy's head.

"Steady, steady, guys." Came Sasuke's raspy orders. With the blood rushing to his head and his arms aching from holding the boy's head in the right position for so long, Sasuke was starting to get breathless and tired.

However, the will to save this boy was glowing strong in his veins. "Hey," He called out to the firefighter. "One slip-up and this boy is paralyzed forever." The firefighter stiffened at his words and Naruto merely grinned loosely. "Gee, no pressure." He chimed sarcastically.

"Storm's coming in ten minutes!" Another firefighter hollered.

Sasuke stared at the firefighter poking through the back window of the SUV as he heard the crash of thunder in the distance. "Look, we got no time to waste so do it quickly but carefully." The firefighter nodded, placing the makeshift stabilizing collar behind the boy's head.

"Doctor, it's Nurse Konan." The helicopter pilot pressed a phone onto Naruto's ear.

"What, Konan? I'm busy now." Naruto greeted distractedly.

"_I know. But we just called in the neurosurgeon. He's currently in the middle of another surgery but he'll be here when he's done." _

"Okay, great." Naruto replied shortly and pushed the phone away with his head, motioning to cut the call. Akira, the boy, started yelping in short spurts and Sasuke cursed.

"Naruto, his lung collapsed." A flash of panic crossed the blonde's face before it morphed into a concentrated countenance. "I'll need a hollow 18- or 20-gauge needle stat." Sasuke ordered and Naruto nodded, leaving to go grab what he needed. A few seconds later, Naruto came rushing back with a needle and a syringe on top of it. He handed it to Sasuke, who grabbed it and placed it in his mouth. He had to stabilize the boy before poking anything into him. Akira's yelps started to die and Sasuke quickly grabbed the syringe in his mouth.

He inserted the needle into the boy's side of the chest over the top of one of the ribs. He then began to unscrew the syringe. The syringe came off and he tossed it to Naruto unceremoniously. There was a brief pause before Akira visibly relaxed and let out a huge breath of air. That was a close one.

"Just like old times." Naruto sighed in relief. "Hn." Sasuke grunted back, too uncomfortable in his awkward position for words. But when was he a man of one?

"You did great, kid." Naruto praised softly. Thunder roared in the distance and Sasuke knew that they had to get out now or never. "Let's move."

A firefighter peeked into the other window. "Doctors, we're gonna have to chainsaw the SUV. The embers will hit him." He warned and Sasuke glanced at another firefighter. "Place your jacket over him." The man nodded and stripped off his bright yellow jacket, placing it over the boy for protection. "I got to keep him still. Keep his lungs inflated. So don't mind me." Sasuke nodded at the firefighter and he pulled back, grabbing the chainsaw.

Metal met metal and embers flew. The boy was protected but Sasuke felt his skin burning from the places where the embers touched him. He faced away from the embers, wincing at the tingles of pain. But he didn't say a word and focused on the boy. He had experienced worse things before. This was nothing.

If it meant that Akira wouldn't be paralyzed, he would do anything.

* * *

It was half past one in the morning when they lifted off with the boy in the chopper. The ambulance was already on its way to the hospital with the elder brother in it. It was perfect timing as well. Just when they had lifted the boy into the chopper, the storm came and rain beat down on them and the chopper. Akira however was safe.

They flew through the air, thunder roaring and rain splattering on the windows. The chopper bumped around a little from the minor turbulence but it was nothing they couldn't handle. The boy was strapped in safely and there was nothing that could dislodge him. Sasuke flashed a light over the boy's eyes to check if he was still responding while holding up an open tube for his collapsed lung. A mask was strapped to his face, aiding him in his breathing.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke grimly. They were going to make it to the hospital but was Sasuke going to make it to the OR? Sasuke caught Naruto's concerned gaze and snorted lightly. It was so typical of the blonde to care for him. As always, Sasuke screwed up.

Sakura warned him and tried to help him. Naruto's been there for him always. Yet, Sasuke screwed up.

He was probably going to get fired by the time the chopper touched down.

Naruto shook his head at Sasuke and glanced out the window. And for once, though he was unwilling to admit it, he actually missed the dumb ass' grin.

* * *

**A/N:**

How was that? This has to be the longest chapter so far. Tell me what you think! I'm open to reviews!

**whenthesheepsaybaa:** Doctor Sasuke **is** sexy! Thank you for following this fic! :D

**xXxgossipgirlxXx:** Thank you! 3

**miloaisbancuh:** 'The Night Shift' is a cool show. They just got slotted for a season two. Happy! It's my first time writing in a medical genre!

**FruitySmell:** The story will get better. Promise! And agreed! They should just have a personal room in the hospital to release all that sexual frustration. ;)

**Medical terms explained:**

MRI – Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Blood work – also known as a blood test

Medevac – emergency removal of sick or injured people from an area especially by a helicopter (Credit: Merriam-Webster Online)

Lacerations – a deep cut or tear in skin or flesh (Credit: Google definitions)

Extremities – the furthest point or limit of something; the extreme degree or nature of something (Credit: Google definitions)

**R&R. Hehe.**


	5. Of Tea and the Past

**A/N:** This is very much AU. Relationships between the characters in this story will not entirely reflect the same relationships in the show. To those who are familiar viewers of the show, there will be some parts of the story, where similarities are present. But as 'The Night Shift' is not a completed show, this story will also have different events and a slightly different plot line. I am not plagiarizing a perfectly good show; I am using it as a writing reference.

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'. (Sorry for the long disclaimer and the author's note but I feel complied to warn you about what you're going to be reading.)

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

Back at the hospital, Sakura was scrolling through the system with an unhappy look. She huffed irritatedly and glanced around, calling everyone's attention to her. She needed to approach this in a different way.

"Everyone? Could we just talk for a moment?" Every nurse and doctor gathered around the reception area with smug expressions all around. Tenten sighed at Sakura hopelessly. As much as she loved the pink head, sometimes she was quite the overbearing boss.

"So, I log in to the system to see how everything's going and this is what I got." She glanced down at the tablet, scrolling through the names entered on the system.

"My ass is hot?" A chuckle.

"I need a lay?" A giggle here and there.

"Dick hurts?" A high-five by Neji and Konan.

Sakura sighed exasperatedly and dropped the tablet on a desk. "Guys, come on. You've had your fun but this is **serious**." She stood akimbo, glancing around at all her colleagues. "I know you guys don't like me. I know. I'm overbearing." Tenten did not expect her to admit that. "I'm a know-it-all. And I definitely do not understand how the night shift runs because I'm from the day shift."

"But guys," Sakura's expression grew desperate and everyone blinked at their new chief of staff warily. "I'm _trying_ as well to adjust to this. The night shift is a whole new world. These systems that I'm introducing helped the day shift." Before they could groan, she cut them off. "**And** I understand that you don't like how some ex-day doctor is trying to make the night shift like the day shift with her day shift ways." That shut a few mouths up.

"But that's not my purpose. My purpose is to make the night shift better than the day shift. You guys have gotten off running things your way but sooner or later, those ways are going to fail. I know you are used to doing things your way and everyone in this room has their own style of doing things. But I have my style of doing things as well. Granted they might not be the best but if they aren't then we'll find a new method." She smiled hopefully at her staff. "**Together**."

"Now, are we going to make the night shift the best night shift in the Fire country?" A resounding chorus of 'yes' and 'hell yeah' reverberated through the room. Finally, Sakura could grin genuinely.

Tenten shot Sakura a proud smile. Thank god Sakura pulled everything together.

* * *

The chopper landed on top of the helipad. "Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed over the winds, rain, thunder, and propellers. Sasuke, a few paramedics, and Naruto carried the boy out of the helicopter and placed him on top of a gurney. The rain battered down on the doctors, making it almost impossible to see a thing. They wheeled the boy through the rain, finally passing under the shelters. Standing at the entrance was Shikamaru, who awaited their arrival with a grim face.

"Somebody get me a status report on that surgeon!" Sasuke called out, ignoring the administrator. It seemed clear that neither wanted to talk to each other just yet. Naruto pulled away from the boy and approached Shikamaru, who acknowledged him emotionlessly.

"Did you approve the MRI for the janitor's daughter?" Naruto shouted over the clashing thunder and endless rain.

"No." Shikamaru's eyes narrowed, his eyesight turning a little blurry as he forced himself to focus on the blonde haired doctor in front of him. "She has no insurance."

Naruto shot him a deadpanned look and groaned exasperatedly. "That's why I asked you to approve the MRI!" Shikamaru sighed inwardly. Were the doctors at this hospital plain stupid? "She can go to the clinic." Naruto growled, his eyes turning feral for a moment. "She'll have to wait six months!" The blonde took a step forward, staring down at Shikamaru. "She'll be dead by then."

Shikamaru paused, mulling over a question in his head. "Why is it so hard for you people to understand that we can't always treat people for free?" Naruto glared at the male heatedly but he took a step back. "Because **we're** the ones dealing with the people." And he pointed a finger at Shikamaru indignantly. "Not **you**!"

He left after saying what was needed to be said. Shikamaru stood on the roof, pondering his options with the rain and thunder as his background. Thunder roared behind him and he sighed tiredly, slouching in his stance. It was time to go inside.

* * *

"So, I heard you do mixed martial arts?" Tenten questioned the Hyuuga, who was currently supervising over the two interns. While Suigetsu was in the background fumbling around with the AED* on an old unconscious man, Tenten, who had already experienced the AED for the first time in her career, was currently more or less flirting with Neji. Neji stood on the opposite side of the bed with crossed arms and an amused expression.

"Yeah, it's a hobby." He shrugged absentmindedly and Tenten's eyes shined with awe. "That's so cool! My eight brothers-" "You have **eight** brothers?" Neji raised a peculiar eyebrow at Tenten, who smiled sheepishly. She did say her family was weird. "Eight _adopted_ brothers, but yeah, I do. Anyway, they're all pretty much into the fighting scene themselves. _A little too much into it_." She mumbled under her breath but brightened again. "And I guess it kind of caught on to me. So, you can say that I'm interested to learn but never had the time to try it out."

He had a feeling that Tenten was insinuating that he should teach her, which would lead to what they call a date. He smirked at the intern. "Um, Doctor Hyuuga, are you sure we should be doing this?" Questioned Suigetsu's doubtful voice on the side. Technically, no. They weren't. Considering the guy's still alive and all, it is a breach of his rights. But…Neji didn't care and it looked like Tenten didn't either.

"We can _get away_ with it if you hurry it up, Suigetsu." A disgruntled mumble came from Suigetsu's side and Neji turned his attention back to the two-bunned brunette. She still had a hopeful smile on her face and Neji decided maybe it wouldn't be so bad to do her a favor.

"Maybe I could teach you a move or two." The grin on her face widened and Neji concluded that he liked it that way. "Clear." Whimpered Suigetsu from the side as he pressed the AED pads on the bare chest of the unconscious male. _Bzzz! _Went the AED and the man jerked his entire body up and down on the bed. Suigetsu yelped and let go of the pads, stumbling into the metal counter behind him.

"Holy-" Tenten almost cursed. "Suigetsu!" She growled as the cowardly male scrambled towards her. Neji chuckled at the sight and opened his mouth to comment about the intern's courage when the curtain pushed open.

"Okay…" Naruto blinked at the old man and the AED pads dangling from their docking station. He could only guess Neji had persuaded them to shock the certainly alive but unconscious old man. He has got to tell Sasuke that Neji was beginning to teach the interns in the way Sasuke taught Neji. Damn Uchiha had an influence on people. And by influence, he meant a bad one.

Shaking his head to re-focus on what he needed, he turned to the interns. "Where's Aya? Nara disapproved of the MRI and I need to see her now." Tenten was the first to answer him. "She's hanging in the waiting room." Naruto nodded and sent her a grateful grin. "Thanks, Ten." He then glanced back at the old man and shot an awkward glance at Neji.

"Just continue with what you're doing and Neji," The male hummed in acknowledgement. "Don't teach them like Sasuke." Naruto left with a shake of his head and Neji chuckled. He was going to have fun with these two.

* * *

Akimichi Chouji was rudely interrupted from his game of pinball by an urgent Uzumaki Naruto. He was surprised at first that the blonde doctor was talking to him. Nobody in this hospital did. And that's when he realized that the Uzumaki was only acknowledging for the fifth time in his entire five years at this hospital (meaning once a year) because he needed to ask Chouji for a favor. Oh, Chouji would _love_ to hear this.

"Yo, Chouji." Naruto greeted oh-so-casually as if the two of them were friends for years, which they weren't. Naruto approached him cautiously with his hands stuck in his pockets.

"What do you want?" Questioned Chouji in a reluctant voice.

"Hey, dude, I need a favor, alright?" Naruto fidgeted on the spot. Chouji placed the tablet on the table and crossed his arms unimpressed. "_No way_, you're talking to me." Came the sarcastic reply, indicating that Naruto never actually talked to him at all.

Naruto chuckled sheepishly and clasped his hands together pleadingly. "I need a scan for that girl over there. She doesn't have insurance." He gestured over to a timid girl standing at the doorway with an arm over her stomach. Chouji's eyes blinked at the girl slightly impressed. "She might have a tumor." Naruto whispered over to Chouji and the said male turned his attention back to the pleading Doctor Uzumaki.

"Well," He started out carefully and Naruto leaned in anticipatingly. "I'd hate to see a hot girl die." He conceded and Naruto sighed in relief. "Thanks, Chouji, she-"

"**But**!" Oh no. That was the word Naruto dreaded. Chouji sent him a devious smirk. "I want liposuction* here, here and here." He gestured to himself, motioning to the areas that he wanted the procedure on. Naruto looked slightly disturbed –nope, _very_ disturbed. "Um, Chouji, I'm not a plastic surgeon."

Chouji sighed. The doctor could be so dense at times. "I know." _Dimwit._ But Chouji wasn't going to say that out loud. "But you know some. Get me the lipo and I get you the MRI." Chouji suggested. Naruto groaned unwillingly but figured it was his only chance.

"Okay, okay, I'll see what I can do." Or Lord so help him, he'll kick this demanding fat ass all the way to Earth country, where they can feast on his Fire country fattened body.

* * *

And maybe he'll drop kick this scheming plastic surgeon all the way to the Wind country and get Gaara to sand-morph his plastic ass. The perks of having friends out in Wind country.

"254,000 ¥?! For lipo?!" Naruto exclaimed incredulously at the smirking plastic surgeon in front of him.

"It's a great deal, really." The plastic surgeon, Deidara, shrugged carelessly as if he wasn't scheming to make Naruto 254,000 ¥ poorer. The blonde haired doctor pulled on his hairs in frustration. He faced the smug plastic surgeon with a hopeful grin.

"Um, I can get you Akatsuki tickets." Naruto offered, knowing how the surgeon was a big fan of the basketball team. Besides, didn't Konan date the captain of the team before? Remind Naruto to ask her later.

Deidara shook his head defiantly with a gleeful smirk on his lips. Oh, how much fun is it to torment the young doctor, who disregarded his art before! "Already got court side tickets for the game. And I make more money than you do so nothing of monetary value can move me." Naruto visibly deflated and Deidara smirked, sensing that it was time to throw in his bait.

"However," The Uzumaki brightened instantaneously with sparkling blue eyes. Deidara was just a tad creeped out. "If you can seal me a date with that hot new intern, I'll do the lipo for free." Oh, yes, Deidara wanted a date with the new intern.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows at the male with one eye. How he managed to succeed in his operations he had no clue. "You didn't tell me you went the other way? However, considering the fact that you do operate on a ton of women, I should have known your passion for females must have disappeared after seeing so many naked ones. I don't think Suigetsu likes guys though." Deidara's eye twitched in annoyance at the dumb ER doctor.

"I know!" He yelled at Naruto, who flinched at his sudden anger. "I'm talking about Tenten, the other intern!" He almost shot himself at Naruto's visible realization. Dumb ass just realized that he was talking about Tenten. What other intern was he talking about?!

"Oh, Tenten?" Naruto paused before bursting out laughing. Deidara didn't think it was very funny. "Tenten? Um, sorry to burst your bubble, bud, but she's way out of your league." Naruto cackled like it was the funniest thing he ever heard on Earth. Deidara was this close to pulling out his scalpel on Naruto and doing a mega face lift on the chuckling blonde.

"Just get me the date or you won't get the lipo." Deidara left in a huff, leaving a still cracking up Naruto behind. A few minutes later, with Naruto all calmed down but still chuckling over the plastic surgeon's absurd request, Naruto was on a look-out for the two-bunned intern. After all, he still needed the lipo to get Chouji to do the MRI on Aya.

He spotted Tenten approaching the coffee machine and he licked his lips nervously. He heard from Neji that the girl had knocked out both Kankuro and Suigetsu when they tried to play a prank on her. Kankuro got knocked out for playing the prank. Suigetsu got knocked out for screaming too much. Naruto would only hope he wouldn't be waking up thirty minutes later with a splitting headache caused by Tenten.

"Tenten," He called out shakily. It was no lie that he was slightly afraid of the girl. She turned to him with an expectant look and he glanced around, making sure no one heard him. "Look, I need you to go out on a date with a plastic surgeon so that he can do lipo on an MRI tech so that Aya can get tested for a possible tumor." There. He had spit it out.

"What's going on?" Oh, _great_. Now, Neji's here. Tenten was speechless and wide-eyed. He could only hope that he was fast enough to dodge any incoming hit Tenten was about to inflict upon him.

"I need Tenten over here to go on a date with Deidara –you know the plastic surgeon, who really likes the Akatsuki- so that he can perform a 254,000 ¥ lipo operation on Chouji –the sneaky, fat MRI tech- so that Aya can get a scan." Even Neji was left speechless as he blinked at Naruto blankly. Naruto groaned. "I know. It's weird and I really don't want to do this myself."

Neji turned to Tenten, who was pondering over the situation. Secretly, he didn't want her to go on that date but if it meant that it would allow Aya to get a scan…well, selfish desires –that Neji didn't even understand why he would have in his position and all- had to be pushed aside.

Tenten sighed tiredly and rested an arm on her hip. "I'm getting _all_ the boys, aren't I?" She drawled sarcastically and Naruto chuckled awkwardly.

"Fine, I'll do it." She conceded and Naruto sighed in relief. She shook her head, mumbling to herself. "I am so glad I went to med school."

* * *

Sasuke slowly removed his surgical gloves, gazing at the young boy strapped to machines with blood still dotted on his pale skin. His hair was wet and he shivered a little as his blue scrubs were also drenched but he didn't pay attention to it. He heard the door of the room push open and he didn't even have to look to know who it was. The scent of fresh tea (because she knew he _abhorred_ coffee) and a familiar strawberry-scented shampoo filled the room. It seemed like her natural scent didn't fade away with the night.

"Sasuke-kun?" Her tentative voice entered his ears and he grunted slightly, acknowledging her. Sakura sighed at the doorway. "Can we…talk?" He nodded and followed her out of the room. They walked in silence as they approached the entrance of the hospital.

The breezy three in the morning air swept their forms. The storm had passed over and now the air smelt like rain and dewy grass. Sakura was already covered in a light blue jacket. He recognized it as the present he got for her three Christmas' ago. So, she still wore it. That made him wonder about the other gifts he had gotten her. Knowing Sakura, if she had really hated him, she would have thrown them away. Seeing as she had kept a three-year-old gift warmed his heart a little. It was a sign to him that she still appreciated the past.

They found a comfy spot on a mahogany bench a few feet from the entrance of the hospital. The early morning was silent around them, save for the frequent cricketing from the crickets. A lamp post lit up the bench right beside them as they watched people exit and enter their cars. "Here." She whispered softly, handing him the still warm mug of tea. He recognized the mug as hers. It was a birthday gift from Naruto four years ago. If he remembered correctly, Naruto had bought them matching mugs with a stupid grin, claiming that it was on sale. He smirked at the memory. He still had the cup in his kitchen cabinet and he used it from time to time.

He glanced at her hands. She as well held a cup of tea in a plain mug, one that he recognized was property of the hospital. He raised a brow amused at her choice of beverage. "You drink tea now?" Sakura blinked at him surprised before realizing his question. She smiled lightly, looking down at her mug. "I never exactly appreciated tea until you influenced me to." She chuckled airily. "I was a huge coffee addict back then."

"Two teaspoons of creamer and one packet of sugar." Sakura glanced at him in surprise. "You still remember what I put into my coffee?" Sasuke shrugged. "Hn, I **made** your coffee." Sakura pinked in embarrassment. "True. But I made you my no sugar or artificial flavoring cheese cake?" She giggled, remembering what a sugar pansy Sasuke was.

He smirked; he did appreciate those afternoon tea breaks. "I liked those." He admitted and Sakura squealed. "I knew you did! You always grimaced and groaned whenever I made you those cakes because you said that I made you look as if you were some health freak. But I knew it! You liked it." She cried triumphantly. Sasuke rolled his eyes at her joy and bumped her forehead with a finger. Sakura winced with a soft yelp as she covered her forehead with a pout. He hadn't done that in a long time.

Sakura rubbed her forehead slightly pricked at the Uchiha but a little warm and bubbly on the inside. It had been a long time since he had done that. For him to do it again, Sakura was certain that they were mending the awkward gap between them after what happened a long time ago. She took a sip of her tea and watched out of the corner of her eyes how he followed after her actions. Maybe it was time to talk seriously.

"Hey, you want to talk?" She lightly nudged the brooding male with her shoulder.

"Hn." Came the ever classic response. This was his escape route whenever Sakura suggested he open up for a while. Usually, the male was cold to strangers and to people he didn't know well. He was serious and slightly more outgoing when he was working. And he was definitely quite the sarcastic little prick when it came to Sakura and Naruto and anyone whom he knew from the inside out. But the one thing the Uchiha lacked when it came to dealing with people is opening up. Sakura had a tough time getting him to tell them about his time in the Sound country. Sakura knew a little about it but Naruto knew everything, considering he joined the army with Sasuke though at a later date.

"Oh, don't 'hn' me. You know that I'm not as easy as Naruto and I won't let you off until you tell me what's on your mind." Sakura was right. When Sasuke started going on his 'hn' rampage (meaning he didn't want to talk about it), Naruto usually gave up and gave him his space. Naruto was considerate with Sasuke's emotions because of a past argument that blew out of proportion way back. It miffed Sakura that she didn't know what it was about and whenever she questioned either of the two involved, one 'hn'-ed her away and the other tried to change the topic by buying her free ramen.

Sakura on the other hand was very persistent. Sasuke continued to ignore her while sipping his tea. Sakura glared at him and didn't let her eyes off his unchanging expression. He would break. She just knew it. And Sasuke knew it as well, considering he was a victim to Sakura's persistence most of the time.

He suddenly sighed and turned to the expectant female. "What do you want to know?" He gave in. Sakura was going to hog him all night and all week if he didn't give in to her. She grinned successfully. Besides, her persistent look had a 99.9% chance of victory anyway. Sasuke couldn't have escaped if he tried.

"Something's bothering you. You either recalled a memory from your time in the army or the fact that Nara-san may fire you is still on your mind." Sasuke smirked at the doctor's predictions. She knew him too well. "The former." He answered and Sakura shifted closer with a concerned expression. "Care to share?"

He blinked down at his half-finished cup of tea. Maybe telling her wouldn't hurt. "Hn." To anybody else, it would have seemed as if Sasuke had declined the offer. To Sakura, she knew that this 'hn' was a different one as she waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts. After all, when was she ever going to hear a story from Sasuke again?

He sighed, beginning the story. "There was a guy in my squadron from Suna from the alliance between Wind and Fire country. Ittetsu. He was a stubborn guy and loud, almost like Naruto. There was a humvee accident on the way back to camp. He had the same injuries as the boy. Skull got dislodged from the spinal column and I had to operate on him." He paused and Sakura stared at Sasuke in shock. In that environment, doing a spinal decapitation surgery* was a huge difficulty.

"I did it in a tent." He scoffed lightly and Sakura giggled good-naturedly. "I'm very impressed." She admitted and Sasuke turned to her with a smirk. "I thought he was going to make it." All laughter left from Sakura as she stared back into emotionless dark eyes. But because she was Sakura, she knew better. Behind that wall of seemingly nonchalance was a bottle of guilt and pain.

"Sasuke-kun…" She breathed out in sympathy as she leaned closer to rest her chin comfortingly on his shoulder. She felt him tense as body contact with Sasuke especially with their relationship was a rarity. But she was doing this for his sake. She could feel the pain and regret better than anyone else. After all, a bridge was built between the two many years ago that strengthened with the years gone by. It was hard to destroy a bridge that durable. Sakura hated to admit it.

"Sakura," He began warningly but she shushed him gently, closing her eyes to take in his scent that just defined Sasuke and Sasuke only. Leaning her head against his neck with shut eyes, she whispered, "It's not your fault." He began to relax and slowly and cautiously he dropped his head on top of hers. He had to be selfish for just this one moment. He _needed_ to be selfish.

"I drove the humvee." He felt waves of guilt return to him. Seeing the boy in the same state as one of his fallen comrades had triggered a painful memory. He had felt helpless at that time. There was nothing he could about it. _Nothing_.

Sakura sighed against the crook of his shoulder, her warm breath heating up his cold skin. "You did what you could. The fact that you tried in that environment especially with the lack of the right tools and guidance is enough. Sometimes, not all lives can be saved and you can't blame it on yourself. Even the greatest doctors can't save every life. As doctors, we try and fight and we do what we can for the people. You already did everything you could do to save his life. I'm sure that he isn't blaming you or anyone for the accident."

Damn, Sakura knew how to cheer him up. Though she did have that affect on him a long time ago. Speaking of which…

"Look, I know we aren't together anymore." Sasuke did not want to talk about that and he pulled away almost instantaneously. He saw a flash of hurt pass through her viridian orbs but she steeled her resolve and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly and reassuringly. He looked away. He didn't want to be reminded of his faults. "Sasuke-kun, **look** at me." He refused. He didn't deserve to in the first place. In fact, he didn't even deserve to be here working right next to her.

She sighed, deciding that no matter what he wouldn't listen to her. "Fine, you don't have to look at me. But Sasuke," She was serious now. No Sasuke-kun whatsoever. Sasuke didn't even bother to correct her as usual. "I know we aren't together anymore but that does not mean that I don't care."

She squeezed his hand. "I do care. A lot, in fact. We are still _friends_." Sasuke winced at those words. Maybe if he had taken better care of her, they wouldn't just be _**friends**_. He hated that word on Sakura's lips but it was unavoidable. He guessed that is what their relationship has dwindled to. It did hurt to know that he was still clinging on to the past while Sakura had already moved on. How did she find it so easy to speak about their relationship when he couldn't even bare to utter a word about it?

Maybe he should start letting go. But then, when he felt Sakura's grip tightened reassuringly on his hand, he got too greedy. Maybe he should prolong 'letting go' and savor whatever he could have with her. Be it in the playful banter, the aggravation of Sakura's nerves, or the constant reminder of 'Sasuke-kun'. He'd rather be friends than nothing at all. He would keep it that way if it's the only way to keep her as close as possible.

The door opened behind them and Konan called out to them. "We've got a drunk driver, multiple MVA*, five minutes from now." Sakura glanced around and sent her an understanding look. "I'll be there." Konan nodded and left the couple outside. Sakura sighed and jumped off the bench with a warm smile. Sasuke recalled seeing that smile many times before.

"Duty calls. Sasuke," Sakura shot him a knowing look and he blinked at her blankly. "You alright?"

It was silent for a moment before he shot her a teasing smirk. "You forgot the –kun again, sweetheart." He chimed and Sakura rolled her eyes at his antics, leaving him outside to think for a moment.

Yes, Uchiha Sasuke was alright.

* * *

With the ambulance siren in the background, Sasuke entered the hospital with two paramedics wheeling in the drunk driver on the gurney. A paramedic was using a bag valve mask to pump air into his mouth. His head was strapped into a blue horse-shoe collar with a bloody eye and a few bruises here and there. Sasuke poured out orders efficiently and pushed the gurney towards an empty trauma room. In came another gurney with a teenage boy strapped to it. Sakura was by his side, guiding the gurney and two other paramedics into the opposite trauma room.

"This one's in a really bad shape." Sasuke mused, approaching the heavily wounded teenager. Sakura shot him a look. "The boy's mine. Naruto, you're with me." Sasuke nodded and turned to join the drunk driver when a nurse approached him with a panicked expression.

"Doctor Uchiha, the boy-" The boy meant Akira and that meant- "Sakura, you're with me!" She nodded wide-eyed and left her original patient. "Neji, you take the drunk driver. Naruto, the teenager." He commanded and Neji rushed into the trauma room with the drunk driver.

"Tenten, Suigetsu, you're with me." Naruto gestured for the two interns to hurry and they bobbed their heads, following the doctor behind the curtains. Naruto already had his gloves on and scissors in his hand. "Let's go, guys. Recycle the pressure." He ordered hastily, snipping off a thread. Nurses hustled and bustled while the two interns watched intensely.

He demanded a few tools and a nurse rushed to get it to him. "BP's falling." A nurse informed and Naruto gritted his teeth. "Two more units." He ordered out. A male nurse entered, passing another nurse two units of blood. "He's gonna go." A nurse grimaced and Naruto growled in frustration, trying to save this boy.

Naruto now remembered why he hated drunk drivers.

* * *

Konan led Ino to a quiet solitary room, where a boy with a broken arm in a sling and several scratches on his face sat in guilt-ridden silence. "That's the older brother of the boy Sasuke brought in on chopper. Poor fellow's so ripped up over the accident."

Ino's eyes softened at the boy and she smiled weakly. "If his brother doesn't survive, he'll go into a depressive possibly suicidal state." She stated and Konan nodded grimly. "I'll leave him to you, Ino."

Ino bobbed her head, staring at the distraught teenager through the glass window on the door. "I'll do anything I can to bring him out of that state. Teenagers tend to have delicate psychological states." Konan smirked wryly. "Leave it to you to analyze everything so perfectly."

Ino smiled in return. "It's my job." Konan left with an encouraging nod and Ino swiped her card on the locking mechanism of the door. The door beeped and the boy looked up with terrified eyes. Ino sent him a warm and friendly smile.

"Arata?" He nodded slowly though still quite fearful of the stranger in the room. The door closed behind her gently and she made her way to a blue chair in front of the boy.

"My name is Yamanaka Ino. Now, let's talk, okay?"

* * *

Neji flung his gloves down with an indignant huff. This gives him all the more the reason to stay away from alcohol. "Unbelievable!" He cried. "The guy has a .38 alcohol level –he stinks of it- creams another car and gets away with a black eye and a few booboos. Amazing." He smirked disdainfully.

"Get him to recovery." He waved his hand lazily at the nurse and she nods with an equally disgusted expression. "Drunk drivers." She spat sardonically. Neji shot her a knowing look before leaving. "Tell me about it."

On the other side, a deafening beep resounded in the air. Naruto slumped down in defeat and tossed his tools aside unceremoniously. Tenten and Suigetsu stared speechless at the dead teenager on the gurney. It was a first for them. But not for Naruto, who cursed as he flung his gloves away.

"Time of death: 3:27." The nurse said monotonously. Nobody liked to see a patient make a trip to the other side. Not even if you have seen deaths your entire life. The feeling burns in your chest and it eats at you as you think 'what could I have done to save his life?'

The nurse shut off the monitor and turned to Naruto with an encouraging smile. "You did all you could, doctor." Naruto shut his eyes in irritation before storming out of the room, cursing the drunk driver under his breath. Tenten and Suigetsu could only watch as the nurse started to pull the blanket over the teenager's body.

Meanwhile, Naruto had stormed out of the room and was already at the recovery room, where the drunk driver lay handcuffed to the bed on one side. "Is this the drunk driver, officer?" He was given a nod in reply. He walked over to the half-conscious old man with a condescending look.

"Sir, can you hear me?" The drunk driver faced him with a black eye and a bandage stuck to his neck. He grunted a little, indicating he could hear Naruto perfectly. Naruto grinned but it wasn't a happy one.

"Ah, you do know that this button controls this machine beside your bed, which controls the morphine, which controls the pain." He pointed to a remote with a blue button in the man's hands. The man grunted again. He knew.

Naruto smiled but his eyes were cold. "Button goes away." He grabbed the remote of the male's arms and the man protested weakly. "Morphine as well." He ripped the morphine tube out of the machine and faced the man with a fierce glare. He clenched the tube in his hands angrily.

"Pain." He smirked at the man and walked off, feeling slightly better. While justice would prevail, the least he could do is make the man experience pain. Something the teenager experienced deeply just before he died.

"Damn drunk drivers…"

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura wheeled Akira on a gurney towards the OR. "Somebody prep the OR." Sakura commanded and a nurse left to prepare the operation room for the two doctors and the boy. Shikamaru joined them once he saw the boy and asked for a status report.

"His bladder's empty and he just lost control of his extremities. We need to get him to the OR **immediately** before the paralysis is permanent." Sakura filled him in.

"The neurosurgeon's still in Tanigakure." Shikamaru said. Sasuke turned around, glaring at the Nara. "We don't have time. We'll do the surgery. I don't have the time to explain how this operation works to you." Sasuke snapped. Shikamaru gritted his teeth and huffed out a puff of frustration.

"Uchiha," He called and Sasuke halted with a grunt, eyeing the nurses to push the boy to the OR first. He walked back with a menacing stare. "What, Nara?" Sasuke was never one for formalities anyway.

Shikamaru stared into fiery obsidian eyes. "How much do you want to save that boy?" It seemed like a rhetorical question at first but Sasuke knew what he meant.

"Even if this is my last operation, I'll make sure he won't be paralyzed." He declared and it was enough for Shikamaru to nod and allow him to go. Sasuke shot him one last glare before racing to the OR. Sakura wanted to follow after him but Shikamaru stopped her.

"Has he done this before?" He questioned and Sakura hesitated, looking a little uncomfortable to be answering.

"Once out in sound country." She answered him shortly.

"And?" By that he meant to ask, 'Did he succeed?' Sakura seemed to catch on and she avoided his eyes, giving Shikamaru his answer already.

"He has done it before." She replied back to him curtly and side-stepped him, hurrying to the OR as well. Shikamaru grimaced and ran his fingers through his ponytail.

Oh, _shit_.

* * *

**A/N:**

P.S. next chapter is the end of the first night shift and there is something quite shocking being revealed. If you don't like it, I understand. But if you stick around, there is a reason why I made him that way because it will play apart in their relationship. Once you see what I am talking about, you'll understand. It'll take a few chapters to see what I mean but this is me warning you about it.

Thank you for reading!

**Medical terms explained:**

AED – Automated External Defibrillator

Liposuction – a technique in cosmetic surgery for removing excess fat from under the skin by suction

Spinal decapitation surgery – surgery to fix the skull back to the spine

**R&R. Thanks, loves. **


	6. Break of Dawn

**A/N:** This is very much AU. Relationships between the characters in this story will not entirely reflect the same relationships in the show. To those who are familiar viewers of the show, there will be some parts of the story, where similarities are present. But as 'The Night Shift' is not a completed show, this story will also have different events and a slightly different plot line. I am not plagiarizing a perfectly good show; I am using it as a writing reference.

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'. (Sorry for the long disclaimer and the author's note but I feel complied to warn you about what you're going to be reading.)

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

"Akira was my responsibility." Arata frowned sullenly as he spoke to Ino. "I was supposed to be his protector." He mumbled, glancing down at the floor. "But I might have killed my little brother." He started to sob and Ino placed a comforting hand on his shoulder with a sympathetic expression.

"Arata, Arata," Ino called out and he slowly calmed down. "Look at me." She demanded but he refused. "Look at me." She repeated her demand and he conceded, turning to face her with tears in his regretful eyes.

"Your brother is alive right now because of **you**. If the accident had been head on, both of you would have died. Your reflex saved Akira." He glanced away from her in thought and she smiled encouragingly. "And not to mention that you crawled out of the car to call for help despite being in shock and injured with a broken rib and arm. This accident," She squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. "It wasn't your fault."

"Do you understand me?" She questioned and he nodded uncertainly. "Look me in the eye and tell me you understand." She urged and his attention snapped towards her. He hesitated for a moment. Then, his eyes steeled in resolution despite the tears threatening to dribble off. "I understand."

The door opened with a beep and both glanced to the entrance. Konan stood there with a smile. "Their mother is here." A woman with dark brown hair much like Akira's and Arata's entered the room with tears in her eyes as she saw her son.

"Oka-san." He breathed out in surprise.

"Arata." She cried and quickly engulfed him in a hug. Both cried into each other's shoulder and Ino rose, taking it as an indication that she should give them some time alone.

She smiled at the sight. After all, it was nice to feel a mother's embrace.

* * *

The regular beep of the machine indicating his heart rate filled the tense air in the operation room. Sasuke and Sakura were both clad in blue surgical attire, a mask over the bottom half of their face, a blue scrub cap, and surgical goggles. Their gloves gripped onto their tools tightly. They stood over a cut-out hole in the boy's back and neck, blood and bones in their view.

"Damn, this is not working. We can't attach the skull to the neck bone. We'll need six screws." Sasuke cursed. Sakura glanced up at the monitor that zoomed in onto the open hole. "Cervical vertebrae* are on the left side. There's nothing for the screws to hold onto." Sasuke groaned inwardly, turning around to peek at the x-rays.

"The front of the neck?" Sakura suggested. Sasuke grimaced and shook his head. "There's a hairline fracture there." A beeping started going off and a nurse turned around. "DM-20* is starting to wear off. He won't be able to take it." She announced.

Sakura glanced at Sasuke questioningly. "What now?"

Sasuke paused before setting his hands down in defeat. "I don't know."

"You need to attach the skull directly to the spine." Shikamaru stepped up and glanced at the screen that showed a view of what they were operating on. Sasuke turned to the glass window where Neji, Tenten, and Suigetsu stood observing the operation. Shikamaru had his hands in his pockets as he stared lazily at them through the window.

"How are we going to keep it in place?" Sasuke questioned the administrator. It was an absurd idea. There was nothing to keep it in place.

"A titanium loop." He answered back smoothly. "Using the wires to secure the spine to the base of the skull, graft a piece of his rib bone to keep it strong." He instructed. "I saw the operation at a conference in Suna. It worked." He said.

Sasuke glanced at Sakura, who stared at him sternly. "It's our best bet." She offered and Sasuke turned to look back at the Nara, who raised a brow at him.

"Are you ready, Doctor Uchiha?"

And Sasuke begrudgingly nodded.

* * *

"Sweat." A nurse swiped a white cloth over Sasuke's forehead.

"We've attached the loop to the spine and the wire to the skull." Sakura informed. "What now?" She faced Shikamaru, who observed the surgery with narrowed eyes.

"Simple. We'll need that piece of rib to fortify the spine." Sasuke turned and grabbed the piece of bloodied rib with his forceps. "I got it." He muttered.

"Careful now. The graft needs to be placed carefully on each side of the spinous process* between C1* and C2*." Shikamaru instructed from outside the OR. Sasuke followed Shikamaru's commands and grabbed the other graft to do the same.

"Okay," He mumbled to himself, glancing upwards to find Sakura eyeing him with mirth in her eyes. He rolled his eyes begrudgingly. "The grafts are in position. Let's secure and close." Sakura ordered with a grin that twinkled even in her eyes. Sasuke sighed, glancing at the proud Nara. Shikamaru walked away with a smirk.

Sasuke turned his attention back to Sakura and she was staring right back at him with an 'I told you so' glint in her eyes. He rolled his eyes once more. He had to admit though. He was impressed that a businessman like him would know such an astounding way to solve the spinal decapitation.

But of course, with his pride and whatnot, he would never say that to the Nara's face. To hell, he would. He's still glad he knocked the guy out.

* * *

"Um…" Aya fidgeted within the MRI scanner.

Naruto shot her a bright grin through the glass window. "You'll be fine. Just take a small nap. For this to work, you have to be very still."

"So, you got the lipo?" Questioned Chouji.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yes, I got the lipo. You have no idea how much I want to kick your fat little ass."

Chouji smirked at the frustrated doctor. "Unfortunately, if you did, you won't be getting an MRI. So suck it." Naruto grimaced at the MRI tech. He was really considering that _sudden_ relocation via his foot up Chouji's ass to Earth country. Then again, he could only hope Tenten doesn't change her mind and stick _her_ foot up _his own_ ass and relocate him all the way to Lightning country and beyond.

"No, I don't want to _suck it_." Naruto grumbled.

Chouji reigned victorious.

* * *

It was secret Shikamaru preferred to keep within wraps. The secret that his eyesight was deteriorating because of stress and lack of rest. After all, he didn't think it mattered until recently.

He blinked as the optometrist shined a light in his eyes. Soon, it was over and the lights in his office were turned back on. "I believe that the test results from our previous session were not the best. It is an unavoidable fact, Nara-san that your eyesight is deteriorating. Have you ever had corrective surgery?"

Shikamaru sighed and rose from his seat with his hands in his pockets. "Yes, a long time ago." He grimaced at the memories. "In med school." He answered.

It was his original dream to be an MD*.

"You an MD as well?" That was the question.

"No, I quit." He smirked wryly. "You can't perform surgery when you can't see what's in front of you."

* * *

"That was a long night." Tenten sighed tiredly, aiding Neji in cleaning up a trauma room. Neji chuckled wryly. "If you think today was long, wait 'til you're up _every single_ night." He laughed when Tenten groaned reluctantly. "At least you don't have to go on a date with some plastic surgeon." She spat disdainfully. Neji frowned. Oh, right, _that_ thing.

"Tell me about your family." Tenten inquired. Neji froze. His family? Tenten paused and turned around inquisitively. "Is there some thing wrong, Neji?" She noticed the Hyuuga stiff figure and she mentally slapped herself. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for that to come off as rudely as I thought it would be. I just wanted to get to know you better. You don't have to tell me about your family." She saw his features relax and he turned around, gesturing for her follow him to the storage room.

"It's alright." They pushed past the doors and entered the empty storage room. They were re-stacking anything that had been taken out or carelessly returned. It was only appropriate to keep the place clean for the efficiency of the day shift. "Maybe I should tell you more about my family." Tenten suggested. Neji snorted uncharacteristically. "You have eight adopted brothers and ten of your relatives died in your great aunt's home. _Anything_ else?"

Tenten's cheeks pinked a little. "My family is weird and dysfunctional but we love each other and we get along just fine." She scratched her cheek in thought. "Um...my mother died giving birth to me." Neji blinked at her in surprise. "I'm...sorry for your loss?" He didn't really know what to say about that. Tenten let out a light-hearted laugh. "It's alright. I'm _way _over it." She waved it away absentmindedly. "I'm the youngest in my family and the only daughter. My entire house is filled with men so it smells like men and it is made of men. You must imagine how I was when I was twelve." Tenten smirked playfully.

"Were you a tomboy?" Neji questioned cheekily and Tenten laughed. "Nope, worse. I actually **thought** I was a boy." Neji's eyes widened at the revelation. "Wait, no kidding?" Tenten nodded. "I hung out with the boys; my hair was boy-short; I ran in the mud and played with BB guns; I played almost every single sport. The worse part was that nobody in my house did anything to correct me. Any female relative hated our house because it was always so rowdy." She chuckled wistfully. "It wasn't until I got my first period and start freaking out about the blood down under that I realized I was a girl and my father and brothers realized that they should have treated me like one."

Neji guffawed at the story. It wasn't every day that you meet someone who had similar issues as you did. "After that, school was exceptionally awkward. Because of my late realization of my true identity, I was still in the 'boys have cooties' stage. Thankfully, by high school, I was able to redeem myself. I met Sakura and we hit off really well. She helped me with my girl problems and slowly I became in touch with my inner girl." She winked at Neji, who was still chuckling at her childhood story. Or nightmare. Either one he didn't exactly know which was a better classification but they were both hilarious anyway.

"Now, how about you?" She nudged him lightly with an expectant glance. It wouldn't hurt if she knew a little bit about him. "My parents both died in a train crash and I was left with my uncle." Her eyes seemed to pity him but he brushed it away, deciding he didn't want it. "I've gotten over it a long time ago." Relief crossed her features. "My uncle's family is the opposite of yours. There were a lack of men in the house."

Her brown eyes widened. "So, did you...?" She trailed off, not wanting to offend him. He chuckled airily. "No, I didn't. I clearly knew I was a boy." She blushed at her thoughts and he found it adorable. He didn't know why he would since many other females around him did the same. But on Tenten, he found it cute. Lovable, even. "I grew up around females and mostly females. There was not a day where I would go un-smothered by the females in my house. So, I guess you could say that's why I'm relatively comfortable with women."

Tenten gasped in shock. "You playboy!" She chided jokingly. "You must have fun having all those women dancing around your fingers with your words and actions. You mislead them!" She huffed and glared at him playfully. Neji shrugged coolly as if he was not at fault. "Eh, I am Hyuuga Neji." Tenten gasped some more, whacking him on the chest. "Arrogant prick!" Neji grabbed her hand, shooting her a stern look. "Hey, I'm still your senior." She pulled her hand away and stuck her tongue out. "Who cares? It just makes you sound old."

_Old?_ Old? **_Old?!_ **"Old? Old, you say?!" He wriggled his hands towards her and she squealed, already having an idea of what he was about to do. "I'll show you old!" She shrieked as he started tickling her sides. She totally regretted mentioning that she was ticklish. They chased each other around the storage room. One trying to escape. The other trying to get revenge.

They would have continued if it was not for Sasuke, who opened the door after hearing the commotion on the inside, that they stopped. Sasuke blinked at them. They blinked back at him. Sasuke's eyes traveled to Neji's hands on Tenten's waist and then to her hands clutching on to his scrubs. He sent them a playful smirk and nodded at Neji.

"This is the wrong place to get lucky, Hyuuga. Though props to Tenten for getting one of the most eligible doctors on the first day."

Sasuke was sent on his merry way by a blushing Tenten and a furious Hyuuga; both throwing the first thing they could get their hands on at his smirking little face.

* * *

"Akira, can you hear me?" Sasuke softly whispered to the boy. A metal contraption was designed to keep his head in place as he recovered from the surgery. By his side were Akira's mother and his elder brother, Arata. Sakura was also present as she had operated on him as well.

"Akira, if you can hear us, please move your hand." Sakura piped in. Still, there was no response.

"Akira?" Sasuke tried once more. No response.

Arata was getting emotional again and Sakura glanced worriedly at the older brother. "Akira, baby, if you can hear oka-san, move your fingers, your hand, anything." His mother pleaded desperately.

No response. His mother let out a strangled sob when suddenly there was movement underneath his eyelids and Akira's fingers moved. "Oka-san?" He whispered out hoarsely. His mother and brother cried for joy and Sakura heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" The mother engulfed Sasuke in a bone-crushing hug to which Sasuke returned awkwardly. Sakura giggled lightly at how uncomfortable Sasuke looked and then how visibly relieved he was when she let go. Oh, Sasuke, the ever awkward hugger…

He made a motion to leave and she nodded. Both quietly snuck out of the touching family reunion. Another life saved. Another family relieved.

Sakura stole a glance at Sasuke and saw how awed he looked. "How cool was that?!" She breathed out and he nodded with a small, rare, genuine smile. They pushed past the wooden swing doors and entered the hallway. As they strolled past the elevator, Ino joined the two doctors with a folder in her hands. She shot a secretive look at the two and smiled knowingly.

"So, how was it?" She asked.

"Wonderful. What Nara-san suggested worked and Akira got his feeling back." Sakura answered smoothly. Ino sighed in relief. "That's good. It would have affected the brother so much if it didn't." At that, Sakura's pager beeped and she jumped in surprise. "Oh, well, catch you later. Breakfast?" She pointed at Ino, who nodded with grin. Sakura walked away after a small wave at the two.

"So, you and Sakura?" Ino started out tentatively and Sasuke groaned. "Is this entire hospital deranged?"

She giggled and nudged Sasuke lightly. "I already pried deep enough into your lives. She's your ex, isn't she?"

"You have got to stop poking into other people's lives." Sasuke shook his head with an amused smirk. Ino shrugged, her platinum blonde hair shrugging with her. "Sorry not sorry. It's a habit. Besides, you two are so blatantly flirting."

"We're **not** flirting." Came the indignant reply once more. "Nu-uh," Ino smirked, shaking her head. "You two so are."

"Didn't you have a crush on me?" Sasuke fit his hands into his pockets, narrowing his eyes at the blonde. Ino tutted. "Doctor Uchiha, I did. But you see," She grinned impishly. "I'm tired of doctor crushes. I'm looking for a nice, sweet businessman, which **you**," She blinked at him with her blue eyes and poking his chest with a sharp, manicured nail. "Are not."

Sasuke chuckled. "All businessmen are jerks." He rolled his eyes and Ino sighed. "I know which is why it's even more romantic _and_ awesome for me to catch one who isn't. If I succeed, it is a ninety-five percent chance we'll get married." She shrugged airily.

"_All day shift staff please report for duty. All day shift staff."_

"Hn." Sasuke grunted and Ino laughed at his lack of response. "Now, I need to get ready for breakfast with your future wife." Sasuke glared at her for that. She didn't care. It was _so _worth the glare. "And Sakura did promise me a holding room. Maybe when it actually arrives, the both of you can use it to _procreate_ once I'm not using it."

Yamanaka Ino was lucky she was smart enough to dash off after saying that. She was also gutsy enough to set off a tired and now currently ticked off Uchiha. Oh, but it was so worth it. So,so, _so_ **damn **worth it.

* * *

"So, I'm not pregnant." Aya bit her lip uncertainly as she stared at her MRI. Naruto sat beside her in the hospital cafeteria, trying to explain her condition.

"No, you aren't. You see, you have a rare condition. It's called _fetus in fetu_*." Naruto started out re-explaining it. "It's pretty freaky but you had a twin."

"A twin." She repeated and Naruto nodded. "A twin. At your conception or possibly early on, the twin did not develop and it stayed alive in a small form inside your body. It looks like a tumor but it isn't." He finished.

Aya stayed silent for a moment before breaking out in soft sobs. "So, I'm not dying?" It was happy tears, Naruto noted.

"Nope, you are staying alive. And best of all," He grinned at her. "Since your condition is so rare, the med school will do your operation for free. No expenses. For free. How cool is that?" Aya started grinning happily and she wrapped her arms around the blonde doctor impulsively.

"Thank you! Oh, thank you!" She thanked. Naruto kindly patted her back as she sobbed tears of joy into his shoulder.

"No problem, kid."

* * *

Sasuke breathed in and out as he splashed water over his face. Today was a tiring day. All he wanted to do was knock out with a beer and sleep for twelve hours. He couldn't believe he would up and running again tonight for another shift.

But then again, he _loved_ his job.

The door to the restroom opened and he paused, recognizing the clacking of those business shoes anywhere. He walked up to the sink, jacket hung around his arm. He tossed his jacket on the granite counter and twisted on the tap. Sasuke leaned on the counter with his elbows before rising and resting on it with his palms.

"The boy pulled through." Sasuke mumbled to Shikamaru, who continued washing his hands.

"That's wonderful to hear." Came Shikamaru's short reply. He turned off the tap and turned to Sasuke. "You know, we should talk about earlier." He started out.

"Yeah, what-" Sasuke was interrupted by a fast punch. It was so fast and so hard that he didn't even see it coming. He smirked to the side.

Shikamaru let out an appreciative sigh. "Now, we're even." He smirked at the Uchiha satisfied and left the restroom with his jacket and a smug smile in tow.

Sasuke spat out blood mixed with saliva. So, the Nara had a punch. Who knew?

* * *

It was 9:17 A.M. The night shift was officially over and the day shift had just begun. Everyone was gathered on the rooftop, drinking beers and sharing their stories. No longer were they doctors. They were just normal people living hectic night lives. Dressed in their casual clothes, it seemed more like a social gathering.

Sakura approached her colleagues with a light smile. "Guys," She started out and everyone turned to her expectantly. "I have something to say." She licked her lips nervously. "I just wanted to say that you guys did a great job and thank you. You really pulled through this night shift." She nodded affirmatively.

"What about Sasuke? Is he staying?" Questioned Neji. Sakura sighed. "I really don't know."

"Well, well, speak of the devil," Konan chuckled. Sakura turned around and blinked as she saw Sasuke approach the group with his bag slung over his shoulder and a bruise on his cheek. What fight did he get into?

"So?" Konan probed.

Sasuke stuck his hand in his pocket with a smirk. "Hn."

Naruto was quick to translate. "Teme means that he's staying." Sasuke glared at the blonde, who threw him an impish grin. The group was quick to congratulate.

Sakura raised a curious brow. "What happened between you and Nara-san?" Sasuke smirked. "We worked things out." He shrugged lightly. Sakura grinned. "That's great." Sasuke pulled out a blue folder filled with paperwork. Sakura smiled slyly when she saw it. "What's this?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Hn, paperwork." He grunted out. Sakura accepted it with a wide smirk. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun." Kankuro came by and handed Sasuke a beer. "You want one?" He looked at Sakura. "No. Not in the mornings." She declined. Kankuro shrugged and walked away towards the group.

The group watched as Sakura was quick to swipe the beer out of Sasuke's hands, chiding him for drinking in the morning. He rolled his eyes and tried to grab it back but Sakura wouldn't let him. It wasn't until Sasuke actually wrapped his arms around her that he managed to steal the bottle back. Sakura huffed and grabbed the bottle again. This time she took a swig, thinking that Sasuke wouldn't take it back if she had drank it. Alas, she was proved wrong as the Uchiha grabbed the bottle without letting it leave her hand and drank out of it. Sakura's face was priceless.

"They _need_ to get a room." Konan drawled with a long sigh.

"I think I can deal with that." Ino sat down next to Konan on the black couch. "Sakura's getting me a new holding room. I put in a word for one more and voila! They'll have their own personal baby-making space in the hospital." Ino grinned beamingly.

"Is everyone in this hospital Team SasuSaku?" Tenten asked absurdly. Ino sent her a smirk. "I claim presidency." Naruto groaned. "No fair! I wanted to be the president. After all, they are my best buds." Kankuro chuckled. "Ino does have the best matchmaking skills. Didn't she bring you and Hinata together?" At that Neji spit out his beer and pointedly glared at the Yamanaka, who played the innocent angel.

"So, you're the reason why my cousin's married to a nitwit." Neji's eyes narrowed dangerously. Naruto cried out in protest. "Hey, I'm your senior in the medical world!" He claimed insubordination.

"Oh, don't worry, Naruto. Neji's just _jealous_." Ino giggled and Neji frowned. "I'm not jealous." Ino sighed. "Sure, you aren't. I think NejiTen is next. I heard something about a _rendezvous _in the storage room. " She chimed and Tenten blushed while rolling her eyes. "I'm Team Murder Ino. Who's in?"

Neji and Naruto both raised their hands and Ino gasped dramatically. "You traitors! Is this what I get after all my hard work?!" She harrumphed before her lips twitched up into a Cheshire grin. "Oh well, at least SasuSaku is still up and running."

"What's up and running?" Sakura's voice gave a shock to the entire group. Ino gulped and played off her terror of being caught with a weak grin. "Nothing. Breakfast?"

Sakura brightened and nodded before Sasuke came up behind her with an arm around her shoulder. "You're booked. Naruto wanted to bring you out for breakfast as a celebration." Naruto jumped up in realization. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that!" Sakura dulled and shot a sorry glance at Ino, who shrugged as if it didn't matter. It really didn't. Her insides were already squealing at the arm around Sakura. So, it didn't matter at all.

"Can we join?" Tenten raised an expectant brow at the Uchiha. His gaze turned stony and he frowned. "Best friends only."

"That's not-" Sakura was cut off when she was dragged away by Sasuke abruptly. "Wait, wait, what about Naruto?"

The group shared similar sly smirks. "He _so_ totally meant 'Sakura and I'." Ino chuckled.

Naruto groaned reluctantly. "Damn it, I do **not** want to be the third wheel!"

* * *

**A/N:**

This is the end of the first shift! Hooray! It seems longer than it is supposed to be but this was supposed to be one chapter with the other but I cut it in half. The previous chapter though still has ten pages on Word. Wow…

Anyway, Team SasuSaku FTW! XD

I also decided not to reveal what I wanted to originally reveal since I felt that it wasn't the right time. I gave hints about it but I don't think they'd be enough unless you had the same mindset as I have. I'll reveal it sooner or later.

**Medical terms explained:**

Cervical vertebrae – vertebrae immediately inferior (below) to the skull (Credit: Wikipedia)

DM-20 – a type of morphine

Spinuous process – directed backward and downward from the junction of the laminae (two broad plates fusing to complete the roof of the vertebral arch), and serves for the attachment of muscles and ligaments (Credit: Wikipedia)

C1 – stands for chord 1

C2 – stands for chord 2

MD – stands for "Doctor of Medicine" from the Latin _Medicinae Doctor_ (Credit: Wikipedia)

_Fetus in fetu_ – a developmental abnormality in which a mass of tissue resembling a fetus forms inside the body (Credit: Wikipedia)

**R&R. XD**


	7. Just Another Day

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'.

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

It was 6:54 P.M. Five more minutes before the night shift started. The doctors and nurses of Konoha General Hospital hung out around the rooftop break room, so affectionately dubbed the "Club House". (It was supposed to be "The Great Naruto Break Room" but Sasuke immediately quelled that with a beating or two.) It was the only place other than the Ichiraku Food Truck downstairs that allowed them to cool their heads off and relax.

"Everybody, you have five more minutes before your asses are all mine." Konan announced, reminding them about the last five minutes of peace they had. Several doctors groaned while others barely cared. It was inevitable to avoid your job.

"Dobe."

"What?" Naruto spat in annoyance from his slouched position in a wheelchair. He was currently playing an important game and he did not want to lose. No, he did not.

"Dobe."

Naruto's eye was beginning to twitch. This was a first. Sasuke was actually _seeking_ Naruto's attention _willingly_. This time, Naruto wasn't willing at all to give his best friend the time of the day. It seemed like their personalities had switched around.

"What, teme?"

"Dobe." Sasuke's voice grew more annoyed by the second. Was the game on his phone more important than Sasuke's needs? He hoped not or else he'd question his best friend's priorities and that blood brother bond thing they did back in the first year of high school. Not that Sasuke appreciated being blood bonded to Naruto and not that he thought it was that important anyway. He just thought that if Naruto was the one who came up with it, he should stick to it. After all, he did his part as well.

"What, teme? Just spit it out. I'm playing a game." Naruto's tone grew aggravated and Sasuke growled inwardly. Damn you technology…

"Money." Was Sasuke's one-word reply. Naruto's fingers slipped off his phone and his bird crashed into a green pillar. He cried out in frustration, knowing that he had been one-off from breaking his previous high score –it wasn't even his high score anyway. It was all thanks to Sasuke that he actually got that high score but Naruto wasn't going to say that. He had his pride after all. His **Uzumaki** pride.

"Damn it, teme! I was so close to beating my high score!" Sasuke cleared his throat. "Actually, I-" It hurt worse when said male actually had to say it out. But Naruto wasn't going to let him. "No, I will not lend you anymore money. I have twins on the way." That was Naruto's revenge. No, not even the fact that they were blood brothers would change anything. It was _his _fault that Naruto couldn't beat his high score. And he would suffer.

Sasuke groaned. "It's 81,000 ¥. It's way lesser than lipo." He said, referring to the lipo Naruto managed to nab for Chouji, the MRI tech.

Naruto's eyes bulged out of its sockets. "81,100 ¥?! No way, teme! As much as I love you, no!"

Naruto sometimes –actually most of the time didn't understand the likes of Uchiha Sasuke. He was all gung-ho about placing bets on sports team but when they happened to go south, he was all shy and stubborn about it. The fact that he was even asking Naruto (which he does every single time he knows he can't pay them back) was a feat in itself. Something about his Uchiha pride and whatnot but recently, he's becoming bolder and bolder when it came to asking for money. And he rarely gets paid back. Sasuke still owes him 100,000 ¥ from his previous miscalculations. The Uchiha may be great at a lot of stuff but betting on sports teams was a major flaw in him.

"What's going on now, my boys?" Sakura calmly approached the two bickering idiots from the side. She was already in her scrub pants except for a light baby blue cotton blouse she would wear under her scrubs. Sasuke recognized it as a shirt his mother had gotten for her, claiming that she had wanted to wear couple shirts with the girl she already dubbed as daughter-in-law.

"Teme wants me to lend him money -81,000 ¥ to be precise- but I won't lend it to him because I have other priorities to attend to other than saving his sulky little sorry ass." Naruto told on Sasuke like a spoiled brat and Sasuke growled at him menacingly. Sakura sighed exasperatedly. Her boys would never change, will they?

She eyed Sasuke with a roll of her eyes. "Do you look for opportunities to take your shirt off?" Well, not that Sakura minded. Sasuke knew she didn't mind the view either. However, today was an uncharacteristically warm day despite it being in the middle of spring. Sasuke found a chance to cool off in an inflatable pool and that undoubtedly meant that he had to have his shirt off. And it didn't seem like anyone –particularly females- minded at all. And Sasuke turns into some spoiled princess if he's exposed to the sun for too long. Something about the heat getting to his brains and looks…

"I remember when _you_ looked for opportunities to take my shirt off." He shot the blushing girl a cheeky smirk.

"I remember _walking in_ on one of those opportunities." Naruto piped up from his seat and Sakura's face reddened further, snatching his phone out of his hands –disregarding Naruto's protests- and pushed him out of the wheelchair, settling herself down.

"I remember _hearing_ about one of those opportunities." Tenten chimed teasingly and Sakura's jaw dropped in mortification. "I did not!" She cried out.

"Um, yeah, you did. Was it six years ago? I think it was Christmas or something. You and Uchiha over there had a lot of fun near the fireplace." Tenten snickered teasingly. Sakura bit her lip in embarrassment, forcing herself to hide her red face with Naruto's phone and a game that he had. She vowed to herself that she would make this night shift a total hell for the three of them.

"That night was one of the best nights of my life. I let her dominate-"

"Uchiha Sasuke, shut the hell up!" Sakura fumed as she tossed Naruto's phone at his smirking face. Naruto and Tenten laughed their asses off at how irritated and embarrassed Sakura was. It wasn't everyday that you see your boss as red as a tomato.

Sasuke caught Naruto's incoming phone and watched as Sakura stomped off in defeat. His eyes were on her behind though and she must have known because she turned around and shot him one of her deadliest glares ever.

"You guys have so much sexual tension around you that I won't be surprised that the both of you are mentally stripping each other." Tenten guffawed. Naruto patted her on the back still cracking up with laughter. "You should have seen them in high school. Just like rabbits. Rabbits, I swear."

Now, it was one thing for Sasuke to tease and annoy Sakura given their relationship in the past. But it was another when it came from someone else like Naruto, who had just commented on their _activeness_ in high school. As an act of revenge, he checked Naruto's phone with a devious smirk before tossing it back to the hyper blonde.

"She beat your high score, dobe." Technically, it was his high score but for just this once, he would let Naruto have his way. After all, it ultimately led to his humiliation.

"What?! No!" Naruto cried out mortified. So, while she was being mocked and made fun of, she took it upon herself to distract herself with Naruto's game, unknowingly beating his high score just before she stormed off.

Yeah, revenge is sweet. Just like a certain cherry blossom, who is probably plotting her revenge against the three of them. Their asses were going to be served on a silver platter, his included. However, he knew Sakura loved his ass. Just like how he loved hers. And they both knew it.

Meanwhile, Tenten had recovered from her state of rolling on the floor in laughter and was already interested in Neji throwing punches at Kankuro or rather the boxing pads strapped to Kankuro's hands. Tenten was enjoying this view. She was enjoying _very_ much. Specifically a certain sweaty and oh-so-hot Hyuuga.

"One, two, three." Neji punched back in response to Kankuro's combo.

"One, two, three."

"Come on, man, you got to fight this." Neji continued, spurred on by Kankuro's taunts and praises. Neji gave him the last of his two punches and successfully made the male stumble.

"Not bad." Kankuro smirked at Neji, who rolled his eyes. "You'll eat your words next week." He muttered darkly. Next week, the Hyuuga had a small friendly match between a Konoha army Vet in the arena at the air base. Everyone close to the Hyuuga was already pumped up for that match. Neji was doing his best in training as he always did.

Kankuro's attention switched to Tenten. As always, **men**. He eyed her in a pink tank-top that had a dragon graphic on the front and black sweats. It wasn't the best attire and it didn't do justice for Tenten's curves –which she worked hard for. But Tenten did have one of the best bodies in the hospital (as a result of an impromptu poll held two days ago among the doctors in the hospital).

"What's going on, Miss Tenten?" Kankuro started out blatantly flirting with her. Neji snorted inwardly. Did he really think that _he _would have a chance with her? In fact, the girl was infatuated with him. So, Kankuro had no chance at all. Wait, what?

While Neji pondered the origins of his thoughts, Kankuro had already invited Tenten to show off her moves. He was obviously thinking that Tenten as a girl would need some guidance and coaching. Well, he thought wrong. Neji smirked once he heard what was about to transpire between the two (after snapping out of his thoughts).

Ah, Kankuro was in for a beating.

"Come on, show me what you got." Kankuro invited innocently. Tenten smiled appreciatively. "Alright, but I'm not _very_ good at technique." She confessed as she shyly jabbed the pads twice and Kankuro brought out into laughter. "It's alright. It's _expected_."

It's _expected_? At that Tenten's brown eyes narrowed dangerously at the male nurse. Neji chuckled to the side. Kankuro just walked right into his death. And he wasn't even that sorry for his friend either. "It's **expected**?" Tenten's voice was laced with venom yet the ever innocent Kankuro did not catch it.

"Yeah, don't worry." Oh, Kankuro, you should be the one worrying instead. Tenten's lips curved into a devious smile. She swiftly extended her leg out in a kick, striking him at his gut. Kankuro lurched forward with a shocked expression as he clutched on to his gut.

"Was that _**expected**_?" Tenten giggled as she taunted the panting male. Kankuro's voice came out weak and winded. "Nope, not at all."

Neji chuckled and stepped beside her. "You need work on your technique but you make up for it with pure strength." Tenten beamed at the compliment. Complimented by **the** Hyuuga Neji? Um, that's a feat.

"How in the world did you do that?" Suigetsu exclaimed in wonder from the side. He wasn't into the fighting scene himself but seeing Tenten pull off a flawless and powerful kick stunned him to the core. He wasn't exactly a man of fists (more of a man of swords) but damn, that kick was straight up powerful.

Tenten shrugged callously. "I grew up with eight adopted brothers and a father in one house. Self-defense is a given and not something learned. I'm not much of a fist fighter but I can pull off a mean kick if need be."

Neji glanced at her curiously. "Then, what are you much of?" Tenten sent him a confident grin with a glint in her eyes that Neji could almost place as slight insanity. "_Weapons_." She answered with a look in her eyes that told Neji that she more than liked weapons. She _loved_ weapons.

That just gave Neji one more reason to like her. He smirked at her answer, storing it in his mind. He clearly would remind himself not to anger her lest she pull out a sword and start making minced meat out of his man-parts. "Suigetsu, toss me a water for the princess over here." He ordered out and Suigetsu nodded, grabbing an ice cold bottle and throwing it to the male as accurate as he could.

That's when Suigetsu learned that he couldn't throw for shit. Neji, Tenten, Kankuro and Suigetsu watched as the water bottle flew over their heads and down the railings of the rooftop. Neji sighed. "Incoming!" He called out in warning. Suigetsu merely scratched his head sheepishly as Tenten walked over to grab herself a water. After all, she did have arms.

The most amazing thing is: This all happened in five minutes.

* * *

Regarding that water bottle, it landed right near a pair of black leather shoes, which were now soiled by the flush of water the bottle spewed out after making contact with the ground. Shikamaru jumped as the water splashed onto his shoes. Cursing under his breath, he glanced upwards at the rooftop with a glare. When did water bottles start dropping from the sky? Obviously not sent by God himself.

He straightened up and approached the blonde female in the ambulance with an ice pack on her leg. She was texting rapidly on her phone and didn't look like she was about to leave any moment now. Shikamaru groaned inwardly. The people he had to deal with… "Miss, you are ready to leave." Shikamaru drawled out. He was not paid to coax people out of vehicles. Not at all.

She shot him a glare before returning back to her phone. "I will leave when I am ready to leave." Shikamaru sighed exasperatedly. He had been trying and trying to get this lady out of the ambulance for about five minutes now. He'd try one last time and give up. This is why **all** women were troublesome. "Miss, you **just **have a sprained ankle." He emphasized tiredly.

"An extremely, _severely_ sprained ankle." She chided Shikamaru as if she was right. Yes, she did have a sprained ankle but that did not mean she was incapable of movement, Shikamaru thought infuriatingly. Shikamaru usually found a lot of things to be annoying and troublesome but _damn_, this lady took the cake!

"Now, if you could go get me a wheelchair after I'm finished here," She motioned to her phone. "I can't _possibly_ bear the pain. I have a low tolerance for it. Pain is a ten out of ten right here." She moaned painfully and Shikamaru sighed. Well, he was giving up. No point trying to convince a woman as troublesome as she was.

His phone rang and he glanced down to see who was calling him. His heart momentarily beamed and a smile almost forced its way to his lips. His eyes flitted to the lady. Nope, she still wasn't moving. Deciding that it would be better to come back later, he slowly walked away from the ambulance. The phone continued to ring and he picked up the call, pressing the phone to his ear.

"Hey," For once, Shikamaru's lazy tone was absent. Instead, a fatherly and more loving voice was present. He listened to the incessant chatter over the phone with a wistful, paternal smile. "That's cool." He commented. Now the topic was about test scores and passing grades. He smirked inwardly, proud of them. It was no surprise that his children would inherit the Nara genes. By Nara genes, he meant the unusually high IQ. He didn't know about the laziness though. His mother said it was apparent in Nara men and not so much in Nara women.

A screech of tires was heard and Shikamaru turned around only to see a speeding SUV slam into the ambulance, the same one with the adamant lady inside. A curse was making its way up to his lips but he forced it down in fear of his children hearing it. "Hey, guys, I'll call you back. Dad's gotta go to work now." He heard their childish reluctant groans and his heart ached to see them and hug them. But he couldn't. He wasn't even _allowed_ to.

The call ended and his eyes studied the situation in front of him. He just hoped that the night shift had started already. And he also hoped that this hospital won't be sued like hell.

Shikamaru sighed, a 'troublesome' escaping his lips. Yes, everything that had to do with this hospital was trouble to the some.

* * *

"Forty-year-old female with bilateral forearm fractures, open on the left." Sakura wheeled in the bleeding and heavily injured woman with a neck brace on the gurney towards an open trauma room. "Can someone notify ortho*? And um, Suigetsu, Kankuro, you're with me." She disappeared behind the blue-curtains with the victim.

Following behind came Sasuke and Naruto wheeling in a man bleeding out of his neck. "He's got stab wounds to the neck." A paramedic, pumping air with a bag valve mask to the man, relayed to the two doctors even though it was pretty obvious. Naruto sent a cheeky grin to Sasuke. "Obviously why he lost control." Sasuke smirked.

"Penetrating neck traumas zone II* GCS 111*." Naruto called out. "I want two large four IVs. Set him up for intubation." Those were Naruto's orders. Sasuke and Naruto had just wheeled the male into an empty trauma room when Konan approached Sasuke.

"Doctor Uchiha, there's an officer-involved shooting. GSW to the chest. They also said to tell you it's Deputy Shisui." Sasuke's charcoal eyes widened a fraction as trepidation pierced his heart for a moment. "Uchiha Shisui?" He glanced at Konan for confirmation and was provided with a nod. His heart sank a little but he knew that this wasn't the time to be emotional. "Is there a chopper down?" Konan shook her head. "They're bringing him here in a cruiser." She answered.

Sasuke nodded. He didn't feel like leaving the guy in Naruto's hands but he could trust the idiot. "Set up a tray and-" Konan waved him off as he grew quickly distracted with the concern of his friend. "I know, I know." Sasuke shot her grateful look and rushed out to wait for the cruiser. Tenten turned to Konan with expectant eyes. "May I go with him?" She was pushed towards his direction by Konan. "Go, he'll need all the help he can get." Tenten nodded and rushed after the Uchiha.

* * *

Neji eyed the young boy sitting lifelessly on the edge of the hospital bed. His eyes were averted from the Hyuuga's piercing ones and he didn't even make a sound. His fidgety mother stood on the side, watching Neji press up his arm carefully to feel for the pain. "So," His eyes flitted to the mother. "He fell of his bike." It sounded more like an unsure question to Neji than a statement.

"Yes," The mother replied stonily. "He fell off his bike." She said it as if she was trying to force herself to believe so. "Fast break or-" "No, just awkwardly." The mother replied flustered. Neji's suspicions were piqued and they only heightened more when he pressed on to the bruised bicep of the boy that the boy flinched and hissed at the pain. Neji had fallen off bikes before in his childhood and they hurt. But they didn't produce severe injuries like his. His was more than a swollen booboo.

Neji raised an eyebrow at the boy. "You okay?" The boy didn't answer. The Hyuuga nodded to himself and rose, removing the gloves he wore. "Alright, we'll get some x-rays and I'll be right back." Neji informed the mother, who nodded robotically and turned her face away immediately. Neji studied the boy for moment, deciding he was too unresponsive (save for the time when he reacted to pain). He grabbed his clipboard and left the room.

He needed to talk to Ino. Reading minds wasn't his thing after all.

* * *

Shikamaru pushed the curtain aside roughly. He was in a tad of a good mood. Sakura was wrapping up the lady's arm with more gauze when she turned her attention to him.

"How is she?" Shikamaru nodded at the unconscious woman.

"She has an open comminuted galeazzi fracture*. She's moving to the OR for a wash-out* and internal fixation*." Sakura smirked sarcastically and turned to Shikamaru. "The ankle sprain is a _booboo_ compared to what she has now." Suigetsu snickered from the side and Kankuro cracked a smile.

"According to our lawyers, she refused to leave the vehicle when asked multiple times to. That makes her not on hospital property but on Konoha's. If she wants to sue anyone, it'd be the city." His lips twitched up into a satisfied grin. That was one headache avoided.

Sakura bobbed her head in agreement. "Now, doesn't that call for a celebration?" Sakura giggled as Shikamaru awkwardly nodded. "Um, yeah, sure, bring the champagne out and all." He tried to crack a joke but failed miserably. Sakura chuckled inwardly. After all, what would you expect from a workaholic like the Nara?

"I'll leave you to your work." Shikamaru quickly escaped from the awkward room. Was he the only one feeling awkward?

Sakura chuckled lowly and moved to the lady's head injury that was covered with a bandage. "Lidocaine*." She gestured for the anesthetic. Kankuro passed her the syringe. "Let's see what's under here." She removed the bandage and immediately blood came squirting out. Kankuro let out a small gasp and Suigetsu cringed while she sighed as if it was normal, replacing the bandage on top of the wound.

She didn't even have to look to know that Suigetsu was cringing in disgust. "Suigetsu, still alive?" She called out cheekily and Suigetsu gulped. "N-No, I mean, yes, doctor." Suigetsu answered shakily. Sakura chuckled, glancing at the wound meticulously.

"Wonderful." Sakura giggled out. "You want to see?" She motioned to the wound.

No, Suigetsu did not want to see.

* * *

The blue curtain pushed wide open and the man was wheeled out. He was unconscious with a lot of bandages around his neck. They were wheeling him to the OR when Naruto joined them with an impish grin and a clipboard.

"Mr. Blood-Gushing-From-His-Neck tried to rob a liquor store and the owner was not letting him go without a stab wound. We'll bring him to the OR and fix him up for the cops." Naruto grinned. Konan approached the blonde male from behind, yanking on his back collar. Naruto stumbled backwards stupidly with bulging eyes as he was yanked down towards Konan's height.

"Yes, Duty Nurse Konan?" Naruto chimed in a pretend-dumb tone and Konan rolled her eyes. "Your wife called."

Naruto's eyes brightened. "Hinata baby? My flower?" Konan chuckled. "Yes, your 'Hinata baby' and 'your flower' called. I still don't understand why Neji hasn't put a fist through your head yet."

Naruto grinned at Konan. "He already did many times back when we were dating. But now that we're married and she has a bun in the oven, let's just say that if he hits me or threatens me, pregnant women can be quite _scary_."

Konan smirked. "Well, Hinata wants you to bring home some hemorrhoid meds*. They help with the itch." She let go of his collar and pushed him away, leaving him to stumble forward and hope to regain his balance.

Naruto sighed, clutching on to his head. "_The magic is still alive~_" He sang as he continued on his way to the OR.

He bumped into Neji and Ino. The former sending him death glares (because when Hinata couldn't get Naruto on his phone, she texted Neji before calling the hospital), knowing about Hinata's need for those meds. The latter shooting him bright grins at her fellow blonde; she was still relishing in the success of Naruto and Hinata.

"Get her those meds, Uzumaki, or I'll blow your brains out." Neji growled and Naruto sighed tiredly. "Every single Hyuuga hates me." He mumbled and Ino giggled, pointing out rather enthusiastically, "Or rather they hate your guts and your entire living, breathing presence." Naruto shot her a glare. "Says the single woman!" He called out childishly.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Oh please, that's not even relevant to the conversation." Naruto huffed, walking away from the two. "You're not relevant!" He hollered back childishly. Ino then sighed and shot a sorry glance at Neji. "I'm sorry for matching them together. In another life, I'll make it up to you." Neji rolled his eyes, shaking his head wryly. He just wanted to ignore the subject in a whole. Their wedding day was the worst day of his life. Period. And nothing would be able to change that.

"Anyway, you wanted me to check up on a boy?" Ino returned to the original subject. Neji cleared his throat and gestured for the both of them to continue on. "Right, so, there is not a possible way I could imagine that the boy fractured his arm falling awkwardly off a bike. Actually, it is possible but it would not be so severe."

Ino nodded, understanding Neji's point. "Right, I've fallen off bikes in my day and I sprained an ankle or a wrist but did not fracture them." Neji bobbed his head, agreeing. "His mother's too fidgety and she doesn't let her son answer for himself. However, the boy also doesn't make an effort to answer. It's almost as if he doesn't want to or he doesn't know how to." Neji shook his head, remembering how partially dead the boy's eyes looked.

"I can't quite explain or put my finger on it. It's suspicious to me based on their aura and the way they carry themselves. The boy seems off. Mother seems off too but not so much." He shrugged thoughtfully. Ino made her way behind the counter and checked for some files she needed. She raised her brow at his statement. "Well, Doctor Hyuuga, do you think it's abuse?"

Neji shuffled on spot. "I don't know. It might be. It would explain the fidgety mother but I would have caught more bruises or scars on the boy. Doesn't explain why the mother would allow herself to be arrested by bringing her son to a hospital, where doctors can catch signs of abuse." Neji mused and Ino set her clipboard down, mulling over it in her head.

From Neji's explanation and description, the mother seems to be a shady character. However, the boy seemed even shadier. Unresponsive, dead-like expression, unusual fracture. Something's not adding up. Ino nodded understandingly. "Alright, I'll check up on the boy."

* * *

Police sirens whined louder and louder as they approached the entrance of the hospital. The cruiser sped towards the entrance and screeched to a halt in front of Sasuke and Tenten and a few other nurses.

"Let's move." Sasuke ordered, wildly flinging the passenger door of the cruiser open and crawling inside. Another officer appeared on the opposite side, opening the door and cradling Shisui's head in his lap. Sasuke couldn't hear the officer in the driver's seat explaining to him what happened. All he caught was "…It pierced through his armor…haven't been able to stop the bleeding…passed out three minutes ago" Tenten took over on the opposite side and strapped a bag valve mask to the lower half of his face. She immediately began pumping air from the blue valve into his airways.

"We're losing his pulse." Sasuke mumbled. "We've got to crack his chest." He informed Tenten, who merely nodded at her senior. He huffed and puffed for a moment before managing to get his arms under the male.

"Okay, let's move him."

* * *

**A/N:**

Sorry, I missed a day. I planned on updating like crazy since it's my holidays. Anyhow, I've a question to ask anyone who actually cares to read this.

**Would you like me to provide an explanation about the medical terms (ones that are unfamiliar)? **

If you are interested in actually knowing what the hell they are operating on or treating, just tell me. If it is a resounding yes, I'll update all the current chapters with explanations on the bottom. If it's a no, then I won't bother. ;)

**Medical terms explained:**

Ortho – Short form of Orthopedic; regarding the musculoskeletal system (the system that gives humans the ability to move using both the muscular and skeletal systems) (Credit: Wikipedia)

Penetrating neck trauma zone II – a penetrating neck wound that extends from the cricoid to the angle of the mandible and contains the common carotid artery, internal and external carotid arteries, jugular vein, larynx, hypopharynx, and cranial nerves X, XI, and XII. (Credit: Medscape)

GCS 111 – stands for "Glasgow Coma Scale"; a neurological scale that aims to give a reliable, objective way of recording the conscious state of a person for initial as well as subsequent assessment; 111 stands for the three categories: Eye, Verbal, and Motor. If all three equals to 111, it means that the patient does not open his eyes (1 for eye response), makes no sounds (1 for verbal response), and makes no movement (1 for motor response). Then, when the numbers are added, a 3 means the patient is in a deep coma or death; a 15 which is the highest means the patient is fully awake. In this case, it adds up to 3, which means the patient is on the brink of death or in a coma. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Open comminuted galeazzi fracture – a fracture of the radius with the dislocation of the distal radioulnar joint (a joint between the radius and ulna in the forearm) producing bone splinters (comminuted) that stick out or pierce through the skin (open) (Credit: Wikipedia; Google definitions; American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons)

Wash-out – the removal of material or a substance from the body or a part of it, either by washing with a fluid, or allowing it to be eliminated over time (Credit: Google definitions)

Internal fixation – an operation in orthopedics that involves the surgical implementation of implants for the purpose of repairing a bone (Credit: Wikipedia)

Lidocaine – a common local anesthetic, prescription drug, and over-the-counter drug; causes numbness or loss in feeling in an area of your body (Credit: Wikipedia; Google definitions)

Hemorrhoid meds – medicine that help relive the unusual swelling of the blood vessels in the rectal area; relives the itch or pain caused by the hemorrhoids (Credit: Babycenter)

**R&R! Thank you!**


	8. One Heart

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'. (Sorry for the long disclaimer and the author's note but I feel complied to warn you about what you're going to be reading.)

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

The dead beep on the monitor served as a stressful and annoying reminder to the doctors and nurses working on Uchiha Shisui. Tenten was doing compressions on his chest while Sasuke was trying to make an incision with his scissors.

"I wanted four units on the rapid infuser* five minutes ago!" He shouted out. He was teetering on the edge of desperation. It was déjà vu all over again. Only this time, he was in a perfect able environment compared to the tents out in Sound country.

"Stay with me, Shisui." It was a hopeless whisper. The older male would never hear it especially in his state.

Sasuke continued cutting into Shisui's chest, aiming to open up a hole over his heart. He could hear Tenten breathing shorten as she used all her strength and energy to keep up with the compressions. "Someone get Tsunade down here from the cardiac institute!" His sharp eyes locked on to a nurse's who gave him an affirmative nod as she rushed out of the room.

"Tenten, here." Tenten bobbed her head, rushing to the Uchiha's side. Another doctor took her place in applying compressions. A nurse handed her the rib spreader* and her eyes widened. Should she be doing this? What if she doesn't have enough strength? What if she does something wrong?

Sasuke was already holding the ribs for her to crack. "Insert the rib spreader." He calmly instructed her. Tenten decided it wasn't time for self-esteem issues. She nodded and quickly placed in the rib spreader. "And get cracking." She breathed out shakily, readying herself for this. She cranked the hand lever.

"How long do I need to do this for?" She questioned the more experienced doctor. Sasuke observed her progress collectedly. "When you hear it crack." He answered simply. She nodded silently and continued on cranking the lever. However, she felt like she was walking on egg shells. One wrong move and it's the end for his friend. She didn't want to live in guilt if it does happen.

Slowly the ribs began to spread. Tenten's eyes widened at his beating heart. She could barely contain the shocked gasp that escaped her. "That's a huge heart." She gasped out. Nevertheless, she went on with cranking the lever, not allowing a momentary feeling of shock distract her.

Sasuke pressed his lips together in a firm line, staring at the heart in Shisui's body. His face was grim when he said, "It's not his." He could predict Tenten's question even before she said it.

"This heart is a transplant?" Incredulity settled into Tenten's eyes.

Sasuke nodded his head before mumbling out quietly. "It's my brother's." The questioning gazes prickled his skin but he brushed them away. Sasuke wasn't a man to share stories in the middle of an operation. In fact, he never shared much at all.

"Okay, suction please." He called out, snapping the staff at work back to the matter on hand. Sasuke stared at the weak, beating, pale heart of Shisui's. Or rather his brother's, Itachi's heart.

Suddenly it was a like a blast from the past. They were under fire, bullets pelted everywhere and grenades were recklessly thrown around. The ground beneath them shook as if experiencing a tremor. Sasuke could hear his breath and own heartbeat in his ears. Somehow, not even the deafening blasts of flash bangs and grenades and the incessant fire of the guns could match the pounding of his heart and the shortness of his breath. Shouts and battle cries resounded from both sides but Sasuke was only focused on the fallen comrade on the ground. He rushed to Shisui, calling his name. Naruto followed after him. He saw two shots right through the chest. One very near his heart.

"Sasuke, what do we have here?" He jolted out of his flashback harshly, inhaling sharply. His eyes flitted to the blonde haired doctor who had just entered the room. "Shisui." He answered back curtly. Shock registered on Naruto's face as he distractedly tugged on the blue surgical robes and the clear surgical glasses.

"Uchiha Shisui? What-?" "Yes. GSW in the left ventricle*." He cut off the male and gestured for him to hurry. Naruto nodded albeit a bit dazedly and pushed his way to the Uchiha's side.

"My finger's in the hole. You need to-" "Cross-clamp the aorta*. Got it. Clamp." He made grabby hands for the metal clamp before someone actually passed it to him. He snatched it from the person and carefully cross-clamped the aorta.

Sasuke grabbed Tenten's hand and dragged it towards the open hole. "Place your finger here." He ordered breathily.

"Undoing the cords." Sasuke blinked and his eyes momentarily flickered to Sakura who was bent down at the head of the table. He had almost forgotten she was here.

"Doctor, 2.0 silk*." His head snapped to a nurse and he grabbed whatever was in her hands blindly. He knew what they were but he didn't bother to check. A bag of blood was passed to refill the rapid infuser.

"Retractor*." Naruto called out for it. Someone handed him the tool and he hooked it under the skin, pulling it aside. Sasuke dug in to the hole, adson forceps* and mosquito forceps* in hand. A thin line of 2.0 silk sutures* was threaded through.

His eyes strained as he trained them on the left ventricle. He felt a curse slip through his lips, unusually edgy for an Uchiha. "Damn it, I can't get the angle." He cursed, panting like a mad dog because of the stress and the frustration suddenly breaking through his normally cool disposition.

Naruto glanced at the Uchiha warily. "Look, Sasuke, don't stress out. If this is too hard, we can-" "Suction, please." Sasuke ignored the concerned blonde. Sakura and Naruto shared similar worried glances as Sasuke attempted once more, to suture up the tiny hole.

"Got it." Sasuke mumbled to himself, his hands shaking wildly. Sakura tossed a meaningful glance at Naruto, who nodded back at her.

Sasuke would be fine. He can get through this.

* * *

After a week of standing by and watching the doctors around him do their jobs, Suigetsu was ready to deal with his own string of unfortunate and drastic cases. He couldn't wait to be held as a hero. He couldn't wait to be admired by nurses and doctors. And he just couldn't wait for Doctor Uchiha or Doctor Haruno or both to pat him on his back and say a job well done.

Suigetsu couldn't wait.

"Yo, intern." He pushed off the counter with one hand. Kankuro approached him with a grin and a bunch of files in his hand. Suigetsu beamed at the sight of those white folders. That meant patients. And patients meant a higher chance of being recognized as a great doctor.

"Nurse Kankuro." Kankuro frowned at the greeting. "**No**. Just no, man." He scowled at the sheepish white-blue haired male. Right, he totally forgot that Kankuro didn't like to be called 'Nurse Kankuro'. It made him sound like a girl according to what he claimed.

"Anyway, I'm assigning you or rather Konan told my ass off to assign you these cases to free up some space for the other, um, important emergencies." Kankuro patted the white files.

Suigetsu did not skip a beat in accepting them. "Sure, no problem, man. I'm _sooo _ready for this." Suigetsu smirked at the folders being passed into his hands.

Kankuro nodded at the younger male, stifling his laughter. "Okay…"

"What are they?" Suigetsu turned to the male nurse with bright, excited eyes. "GSW? Trauma injury? OD?" Kankuro raised a brow at the male's rapid fire questioning.

Oh, boy, Suigetsu was in for a ride. "Um, sure. Why don't you check it out for yourself, huh?" He patted the male on the back awkwardly and walked away as fast as he could.

Suigetsu would be getting the shock of his life in a few minutes.

* * *

Neji pressed around the boy's mid-torso, glancing at him every time he moved to see his reaction. "Does this hurt?" The boy was silent. Neji moved his hand to a different spot. "Does this hurt when I touch it?" Silence. Neji frowned at the boy. "Isamu? Does this hurt?"

"…A little." Isamu finally gave an answer but his tone sounded unsure and confused. Neji paused, taking note of his response.

"Where am I?" Isamu glanced around dazedly. Ino, who stood behind Neji, observed his actions attentively. Neji sent her a glance and she nodded. "You're at a hospital. Konoha General to be exact." She answered him.

Isamu's attention turned to her. Confusion settled deep in his little eyes and Ino took a mental note about that. "Where's my oka-san?" He questioned her, glancing around the room to search for his missing mother. Neji placed a gentle hand on the boy, taking out his stethoscope to examine the hurting side.

"Your mother is outside in the waiting room." Ino replied. "Do you remember being brought in by your mother?"

Isamu shook his head. "No, I don't." Ino gazed deep into the boy's dark brown eyes. It was the truth was all they said.

"Do you remember being hurt or how you got hurt? Did you fall? Did somebody hit you?" Ino raised a brow at the boy's absolutely puzzled expression.

He frowned, shaking his head once more. "I don't know." He answered, staring off into space suddenly.

Ino bent down, meeting face to face with the young boy. "You can tell us about it." She offered. "I promise you we'll keep it a secret. Just between us." Ino didn't want to lie, of course. If he mentioned anything related or sounding like abuse, she'd immediately call a social worker and have the mother or father or relative apprehended. But it was the only way to coax whatever he's hiding out of him.

"I don't know." Came the dazed reply. "Where am I again?" He blinked at her innocently and something in Ino's mind told her that something was off but right now was not the time to force it on. Ino sighed inwardly, disappointment crossing her features. She managed a reassuring smile and shared meaningful glances with Neji.

"Okay," Ino leaned back and reached into her pocket for her phone. "You want to play a cool new game on my phone?" She suggested and the boy timidly nodded, reaching out for her phone when she handed it to him. Neji pushed his chair back and Ino gestured for him to leave the room. Sounds of Flappy Bird bouncing in the air and dying as it hit the ground filled the air.

* * *

"Doctor Hyuuga, his x-ray results are back." A nurse handed him the document before hurrying away to complete her other duties. Neji opened the file and pulled out a black piece of film.

"Let's see it." Ino motioned to the fluorescent screen near the reception. An image of the boy's chest was clipped to the screen; the lungs and the ribs visible. Ino studied the image, noticing something different.

"You notice it, right?"

Ino titled her head to side, scrutinizing the x-ray.

"Are those fractures?"

She glanced at the pale-eyed Hyuuga, who bobbed his head in affirmation.

"He has multiple rib fractures. All of them are in various stages of healing." He crossed his arms with a frown. "He's been taken care of somewhere. Maybe multiple other hospitals." He turned to stare at the thoughtful Yamanaka.

"Should we call child services?" He asked her for her word on it.

Ino huffed out an uncertain breath of air. There was something else to the boy. His confused state of mind. His anti-social behavior. His various injuries. His unusual fractured arm. His fidgety mother. These things were starting to irk her inwardly. She stared at the x-ray in thought. She found it insufficient. There wasn't enough to place a conclusion on this. Even if there was, she would make sure it is the right one.

"No, not yet." She shook her head at Neji. "He'll just be buried in the system and it still won't help. He's traumatized both physically and emotionally. That is a given. However, I want to talk with him a little more. Maybe I'll also speak to the mother. But," She faced the doctor. "A simple fractured arm isn't enough to keep him here long enough for me to figure out what's wrong. I need enough time to run a MMSE* and an APS test*."

Neji smirked, removing the sheet from the fluorescent screen and shoving it back into the folder. "I'll write him up for a concussion syndrome. That should give you enough time."

Ino nodded, smiling at the idea. "Yeah, nausea, headaches. Probably caused by the bike fall." She beamed at the male. "Great, I'll start a background check on the parent and start the test on Isamu. Thank you."

"Alright." Neji agreed and the two went their separate ways. Ino for the boy and Neji for his paperwork.

Meanwhile, Suigetsu left the reception with anticipation all over his smiley face. He made his way down to a check-up station, wondering what cases he would tackle. He hoped they were cool and hotshot cases that would get all the nurses fawning over him.

He just hoped he didn't have to stick a hand in someone's a-hole or vagina. Shuddering at that…

He pushed past the curtain and knocked on the wall politely. An old woman stared at him expectantly. Nevertheless, he never lost his grin. "Mrs. Chiro?" The old lady acknowledged him and he entered the room with a bounce in his step.

"I am Doctor Suigetsu. What can I help you with?" He glanced down at the clipboard when he heard the old lady in hospital attire croak out, "It burns." He froze and his cheery smile became awkward.

"Um, Mrs. Chiro? May I know what burns?"

Oh, god, please not let it be what he thinks it is.

"It burns." She repeated exasperatedly. "Down here." She pointed down below…oh.

"I bet you that damn Hiro gave me an STD." She growled out. Suigetsu could feel himself sweating anxiously. This was not what he planned on doing this entire night shift.

"Um, this is not a joke, right?" He would gladly wish for Kankuro to pop out now with a video camera, laughing his ass off at his face. He would prefer that than-

"Do you think **this **is a joke?" She lifted her gown and Suigetsu's eyes burned at the sight.

Oh, god! "Oh, god, oh, um, Mrs. Chiro, I see that it is not a joke at all." Suigetsu averted his poor eyes from the sight. He didn't want to see what's down under. He **did not** at all want to see **that**.

* * *

The monotonous high frequency beep reverberated throughout the room. His monitor flashed dangerously and Sasuke growled under his breath.

"Come on, do it again." He commanded, rushing the doctors to charge up the defibrillation poles again. The whine of the electricity charging back through the poles was heard. Sasuke held the two electric poles that would shock the heart back to life again. Naruto continued to hold the skin back with the retractor. Sakura held a blue pumping valve to a tube that was connected to Shisui's mouth.

"Clear."

"Clear."

The loud sound of the electric charge registering once more resounded. Still, nothing. Sasuke licked his lips nervously as Sakura sighed as exasperated as he was.

"Sasuke, it's been twenty minutes." She warned yet the male ignored her. He shot Tenten a stern look, nodding to the machine behind her. "Fire it up again." He ordered. Naruto added, "Increase the joules too." Tenten nodded and turned around, increasing the joules and restarting the charge.

"Clear."

"Clear."

_Boom!_

Silence.

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_ Everyone let out a sigh of relief at the returning heartbeat. The heart began to pump once more and glad smiles slipped over everybody's lips. Even Sasuke managed a tiny smirk, calming down from the stressful high.

"You're not dying today, Shisui." He whispered to the unconscious male.

Sakura eyed the once again collected male. "Sasuke, look, I know you're glad and all but-"

"He's going to need a real heart surgeon to look at him." Naruto finished for her. Sasuke nodded, fully aware of that fact. That was the reason why he had requested for Tsunade.

"I know." But for now, he was safe. For now.

* * *

Suigetsu trudged towards the front desk. Uncomfortable and grumpy. He did not want to be traumatized by those sores under…_there_. He found Konan glancing through files on the desk and he approached her carefully.

"Duty Nurse Konan, is there anyway someone else can take these cases off my hand?"

The response he got was immediate. "No." If it was anyone else, he would have protested and threw a fit. But this was no-bull-shit Konan. He had seen her take down Doctor Uzumaki, Doctor Hyuuga, _and_ Doctor Uchiha. If she said no, **it meant no**.

Suigetsu bit his lip and walked away without a word. Well, he would just have to suck it up for now.

After he passed by the emergency room, the doors were pushed open by Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. A female with onyx hair and striking yellow eyes approached Sasuke with a worried frown.

"Sasuke-"

"Aika." He greeted grimly. He noted the frantic woman before him. She was Shisui's wife and had already bore him a six-year-old child. The last he had seen her was about two months ago at a family gathering. The same one he bribed Sakura to come to because his nieces and nephews all loved her. The same one he stormed out of after a tiff with his father.

"Aika," Naruto approached the trembling woman and gave her a hug. "Shisui's going to be okay." Relief passed through her features and she relaxed a little. "For now." She tensed up again. "There's been slight damage to the heart." Horror seeped through her tension and she grabbed both Naruto's and Sasuke's forearms tightly. "But don't worry." Naruto quickly reassured, ignoring the sudden cut-off of blood and oxygen in his forearm. "We fixed the hole in his left ventricle and we're putting him on some medications that will keep his heart pumping."

"And I'm going to see what these idiots butchered." A busty blonde in scrubs and a military jacket smirked at Aika and the other two doctors.

"Woah, hey, it's Ba-chan!" Naruto greeted warmly and loudly. Tsunade grimaced, bonking the idiotic blonde on the head. "Don't make me take your heart out. Cause I can and I will." She threatened and Naruto laughed sheepishly before stepping away from the hot-tempered blonde.

Tsunade turned to Sasuke with a teasing smirk. "Why, hello, Uchiha, looking good as always." She raised a casual brow at the dark-haired male, who grunted back at her.

Her expression dulled. "And as unresponsive as usual." Well, he was an Uchiha. He wasn't like the other Uchiha's but he still **is **an Uchiha. The same old lack of speech and emotions Uchiha.

Sakura stood to the side awkwardly. It was an army reunion for sure. Naruto seemed to have noticed her silence and he directed Tsunade's attention to the girl. "Oh yeah, Ba-chan, this is Doctor Haruno Sakura." He introduced the two. Tsunade raised a brow at the pink-haired doctor with a sweet disposition. She looked sweet yet Tsunade had a feeling she could pack a punch.

Wait. Haruno Sakura? "Oh," She shot Sasuke a secretive glance. "You're **that** Haruno Sakura." She smiled slyly at the bubblegum haired doctor. Sakura nodded uncertainly. "Yes, I'm _that_ Haruno Sakura." She sent Sasuke a suspicious glance. "What did he tell you about me?"

Tsunade laughed boisterously, her large chest rising as she guffawed. "I assure you, hon', they are good stuff." She patted Sakura's hand in hers yet the dubious look never faded on Sakura's face.

"Excuse me, Doctor Tsunade." Shikamaru entered the conversation. Sakura placed a hand over her face. This was not going to end well.

He faced the expectant blonde cardiac surgeon. She was intimidating but Shikamaru held his ground. "We already have a cardiac surgeon on call." He hated to break it to her (knowing of how violent the doctor could get) but he had to.

"Doctor Tsunade is the best at what she does." Naruto piped up from the side. He eyed Sasuke's scowl warily and Sakura's dreadful look.

Shikamaru nodded tiredly. "I know. Doctor Tsunade is the best at what she does. However, she has no surgical privileges at Konoha General. She used to have them but that was before she left for the Cardiac Institute."

Naruto couldn't help but frown at that. Sakura's eyes flitted to Sasuke. She licked her lips anxiously, watching him as his eyes began to twitch in impatience. It wasn't long before he snapped. He grabbed Shikamaru by the collar and threatened to pummel his face with a dark glare. Immediately Naruto and Sakura moved to pull the two males apart before something more serious happened.

Naruto pushed away a pissed off Sasuke and forced him to look him in the eye. "Hey, take Aika and Tsunade to see Shisui. I'll deal with this." Sasuke said nothing. Pulling away from the blonde with set jaw, he approached the two chatting ladies. It was so like Tsunade not to take notice of Sasuke's blowing top.

Naruto shot a look at Sakura, advising her to follow Sasuke just in case. The pink head nodded and she pulled away, a hand placed on Sasuke's clenched fist. When the three doctors and one family member left, Naruto turned to Shikamaru full of solemnity. Now, this was not the usual happy-go-lucky Naruto. No. This was a serious Naruto, the one who hated seeing friends die. The one who **has seen** friends die every day in war.

"You've got to grant her surgical privileges." Naruto pleaded.

Shikamaru adjusted his jacket with a frown. "I can't just make it happen like magic because the patient is a friend. The committee would have to approve her. I'm not the committee. It ain't my call."

Naruto sighed and nodded his head understandingly. "I know. I know it's not your call. But Uchiha Shisui is more than just a friend." Naruto licked his lips, wondering if he should be the one telling the Nara this. But then, if he didn't, someone would be dying tonight. "Uchiha Itachi was killed in action back in Sound country four years ago. Itachi was Sasuke's older brother. When Shisui, Itachi's best friend, got shot in the chest in Sound, Sasuke had to make the tough decision of donating Itachi's heart to Shisui. Tsunade was the cardiac surgeon who performed the surgery then."

Shikamaru blinked at the stern blonde doctor in front of him. Guilt seeped through his heart for a moment. He was shocked at himself. He was feeling guilty for the Uchiha?! Preposterous! But then again… "I didn't know that. I would have been nice to know that." The Nara pressed his lips into a thin, firm line.

"So, what do you want me to do?" Shikamaru sighed, scratching his cheek annoyedly. As much as he disliked the Uchiha, he still felt like he needed to do something.

Naruto brightened a little, patting the tired male on the shoulder. "Get the board to grant her the rights. Tsunade is better than any of the cardiac surgeons in this building and **you** know it. Don't let your personal issues with Sasuke screw up someone else's life."

Naruto left the Nara with another pat on the shoulder as he entered the room to check up on Sasuke and Shisui. Shikamaru sighed to himself, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration. His tired and stressed brain was trying to figure out a way to grant Tsunade's rights.

The male Nara breathed out a sigh of exasperation. "Troublesome."

* * *

**A/N:**

It would have been updated earlier but world cup fever got to me! I might do a double update tomorrow or not. We'll see! XD

**Do you want me to put up explanations about the medical terms at the end of the chapter?**

Please answer this question! It'll help me out a lot!

**Medical terms explained:**

Rapid infuser – a machine that transfusing blood quickly

Rib spreader – also known as Finochietto retractor; a rack-and-pinion-type stainless steel rib spreaders (with a thumb-screw to lock it in place) with fenestrated blades and a hand-cranked lever to separate the arms in a staged fashion and lock them in place; used in thoracic surgery to separate the ribs. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Left ventricle – one of the four chambers (two atria and two ventricles) in the human heart; receives oxygenated blood from the left atrium via the mitral valve, and pumps into the aorta via the aortic valve. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Aorta – the main artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits into two smaller arteries (the iliac arteries); distributes oxygenated blood to all parts of the body through systemic circulation. (Credit: Wikipedia)

2.0 silk – a type of suturing material

Retractor – a surgical instrument by which a surgeon can either actively separate the edges of a surgical incision or a wound, or can hold back underlying organs and tissues, so that body parts under the incision may be accessed. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Adson forceps – a thumb forceps (similar in appearance to tweezers) most commonly used for suturing the skin. (Credit: Surgical Instrument Pictures)

Mosquito forceps – a type of locking forceps; a variant of the Kelly forceps; more delicate and smaller hence the name "mosquito" forceps. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Sutures – commonly known as stitches; a medical device used to hold body tissues together after a surgery or an injury. (Credit: Wikipedia)

MMSE – stands for "Mini-mental State Examination"; a brief 30-point questionnaire test that is used to screen for cognitive impairment. (Credit: Wikipedia)

APS test – stands for "Adolescent Psychopathology Scale"; evaluates the presence and severity of symptoms of psychological disorders and distress. (Credit: PAR)

**R&R. :D**


	9. Falling and Catching

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'.

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

An hour after the little tiff between Sasuke and Shikamaru, a sickly man walked out of the waiting room, shivering and shaking. His skin was deathly pale. His eyes were sunken in. He was bony and frail. His hair was flat and oily against his scalp. His lips were as white as a ghost. All in all, he looked like one dead walking man.

Naruto was happily strolling down the hallway as usual. His cheerful demise never extinguished and it seemed to bring life to the night shift's everlasting lull of darkness and gore. Greeting nurses and doctors on the way, he made his way to the reception.

"Sir, please return to the waiting room. There are several more critical patients before you. I'm afraid you'll have to wait." Konan was the first to approach the ghoul-like male professionally.

It took a moment for the male to respond. A moment for him to process her words through his cloudy mind. "I'm in pain." He paused, thinking through his next words. "I'm critical." He wheezed out. Deep in Konan's mind, she knew this man was definitely not on his right screws today.

Naruto seemed to have heard the commotion and studied the male. He recognized the ghastly male as a man frequently seen at hospitals in the area. He in particular had been visiting this hospital many times to hound the nurses and doctors for medicine or "treatment". Kami knows this man was an addict and especially loved to beg him for his meds. Among the staff, he was given the nickname, "Naruto's Junkie". It was one Naruto wasn't pleased about.

"Again? Seriously, man?" He stormed over to the male. Naruto was now annoyed. He was very annoyed. He abhorred drug addicts and any law breaker for that matter. Hospitals would usually give them what they wanted so they wouldn't come back to disturb the environment but Naruto wasn't the obliging type. No, he was the forceful, don't-destroy-your-life type.

"I'll handle this." He nodded at Konan, who returned to her post behind the counter. He grabbed the junkie by the arm and tugged him towards the exit.

"Look, man, I will not give you drugs. In fact, no one in this hospital or any another hospital will. I will call every single hospital in Fire country so that they know who you are." He declared indignantly.

"But I have a migraine and all I got was-"

"I will **not** give you drugs." Naruto glared at the male, who merely gaped at him dazedly. "So, get out and sign up for a drug treatment program!" He gently pushed the male out of the hospital annoyed at how careless he was taking his life. Pain meds were only going to solve the problem for a temporary period of time. To fix that problem, he needed to find help pronto.

* * *

Ino stared down at the sleepy Isamu perplexedly. So far, every single question she asked him were basically either avoided or answered with a totally vague reply. They've been at it for an hour and the boy was beginning to feel lethargic. Ino's brain was cracking as well but she needed him to give a proper and full answer to at least one of her questions. That way she could work with something.

"I'm tired. We've been talking for an hour. I want to go to sleep." Isamu whined weakly.

Ino sighed inwardly. She wanted to go to sleep as well. The quiet and serene tranquility of the room wasn't helping her coffee-fueled body either.

"I know you're tired, Isamu. But just a few more questions." A tinge of annoyance crossed the boy's half-lidded eyes and Ino bit back a grimace.

"Can you tell me anything about your parents? Their relationship with each other? Their relationship with you?" Ino prodded.

The boy groaned pathetically. "I don't want to talk about it." He folded his free arm over his cast. "I'm going to sleep." He declared and Ino shut her eyes for a moment in frustration. The boy was acting like a spoiled brat and it was getting on her nerves. However, she had to remain a professional composure.

"Is your father around lately? Is he mean? How about your mother? Is she mean?" She interrogated further but watched with a falling heart as the boy's eyelids fluttered close. Ino sighed loudly to herself. She didn't have the time for this.

She was about to give up and leave when all of a sudden, the boy awoke and blinked at her with bright eyes. "Oh my god! You are so pretty!" He exclaimed in a high, girly voice. Ino sat back in her chair, observing his sudden change of personality.

"Um, thank you." Ino played along him. The boy couldn't have switched personalities on a whim.

"I love your hair. Do you think it'll be nice if I did my hair that way?" He placed his free hand in his hair thoughtfully. "Hm, I'd have to grow it out. But I don't think Isamu would like it if I did." He pouted.

He turned to Ino with sparkling eyes. "Hey, do you have a boyfriend?" She asked casually. Ino's lips twitched a little. "No." She answered, carefully watching what this personality will do next.

Isamu puckered his lips. "Hm, that's so sad. You're too pretty. I love boys. Well, Isamu is a nice boy. But I don't like-like him that way. He's more of a friend." He nodded with a smile.

Ino quirked her lips up, shaking her head with a tired sigh. "I'm so sorry. I'm so tired that I must have forgotten." She smiled politely at the boy. "What's your name again?"

The boy grinned at her positively. "My name is Hara. What's yours?"

* * *

The group of adults laughed at the story that Tsunade was sharing around. It was an old story. One that went way back into their military days.

"So, there was a group meeting at the base and a bunch of important people whom I can't remember came to the meeting as well." She started out with boisterous laughter.

"I love this story." Shisui rasped out, turning to Sasuke, who stood by his bed with a smirk.

"And Mr. Stick-Up-His-Ass over here runs up on stage and challenges every single general and officer about the lack of armor on the humvees." She points at Sasuke, who glared at her for the uncalled-for-nickname.

"So, teme thrusts at them a bag of boots that belonged to soldiers who had their legs amputated because of humvee crashes." Naruto continued on.

"No way!" Tenten was wide-eyed as she stared at the smug Sasuke.

"Well, when Sasuke-teme has done over a hundred operations on soldiers who lost their legs, his smart brain found a pattern." Naruto nudged the doctor with his leg to which the Uchiha responded with a glare. He did not like to be touched by Naruto's dirty foot.

"Oh, so you admit you're an idiot?" Tsunade raised a teasing brow at the blonde doctor, who cried out in protest.

"Hey! I'm not dumb!"

"I pity Hinata." Tsunade shook her head wryly. "Anyway," Disregarding Naruto's cries, she continued on with her story. "Idiot one over there," Pointing to Naruto, "And idiot two," Pointing to Shisui, who nodded affirmatively, "Had to drag his sorry little infuriated ass off the stage. Now, everyone knows Sasuke to be the coolest guy on the planet, who almost never uses his vocal cords-"

"Sakura can protest to that." He piped in cheekily. The pink-haired doctor's jaw dropped and she gave him a perfectly good punch in the gut. "Stop mentioning it!"

"Oh, I can totally protest to that too." Naruto raised his hand. "There was one time I could hear them from my living room. I still haven't forgiven the both of them for the trauma and the clean-up process after. They trashed my bathroom." Naruto pointedly glared at the both of them. One of them blushed and the other shrugged callously.

"Never took him to be the wild kind of guy." Tsunade nodded thoughtfully.

"Actually, Sakura over here-"

"Shut up!" She slammed her foot down on his but missed because of how well he knew she would react.

"Missed me." He teased lowly into her ear. She let out a frustrated groan, moving away from him to stand next to Tenten.

"They are so flirting with each other." Tenten whispered into Tsunade's ear. The older woman nodded gravely. "I know."

"Finish the story." Shisui persuaded weakly. Sakura was grateful for the subject change.

"Oh, right," Tsunade cleared her throat, returning to the topic. "So, when Sasuke gets passionate about something, it's like his vocal chords awaken or something because he starts ranting and ranting on and on about his passion. In this case, it was him screaming for more armor on the humvees."

"I get elbowed in the face by some military police bodyguard guy and Shisui gets a black eye after that day." Naruto added with a laugh after that. Shisui chuckled lowly from his bed.

Tsunade tossed her head back, shaking her locks away from her face as she laughed. "The base became the definition of bedlam after that. Every single soldier was rooting for Sasuke." She placed a hand on her aching belly. Calming down to breath, she then placed a hand on Tenten's shoulder to balance herself. "Next thing we know, Sasuke's rant was tossed aside and the male remained bitter for an entire week." She concluded.

"Wait, they didn't demote him or take him off the army?" Tenten asked curiously.

Tsunade stiffened a little but she relaxed enough to answer Tenten's question. "No, everyone knew Sasuke was right. Taking him off would be equivalent to taking him off the night shift over here."

"Total chaos if that happened either way." Naruto added in.

"I left the army a month later because I was sick of how no improvements were made." Sasuke said. However, three people tensed in the room. Naruto, Tsunade, and Sakura. Tsunade had been in the base long enough to know that Sasuke was kicked out. Naruto and Sakura both knew what happened truly but not down to the gritty details. Shisui had been shipped back home to Konoha after his heart surgery in Sound. Tenten was just an outsider to all of this.

"Right." Tsunade quipped out awkwardly. Sasuke glanced around unsure why the atmosphere was suddenly lost.

The door opened and Aika entered the room worriedly. Sasuke was the first to notice her and sent her a polite nod. Naruto jumped up from his seat and approached Shisui's bed.

"Aika," He greeted cheerfully. "Looks like we'll be able to fix Shisui's heart but we won't be able to fix up his ugly bleh!" He playfully made a face and everyone let out a chuckle or a giggle at Naruto's attempt to fix the mood. Even Sasuke cracked a small amused smirk at his attempt.

Aika rolled her eyes good-naturedly with a loving smile. "Oh, don't worry. I love that ugly face of his." She cooed and Shisui's lips curved halfway into a bright smile when all of a sudden coughs started to rack his form. Aika's expression immediately turned worried and everyone knew it was time to give the man his privacy.

"Okay, okay, let's give Shisui over here some space." Tsunade cleared out the room. Aika glanced backwards with anxious eyes but could do nothing but obey and pray for her husband's life.

As Sasuke was about to leave, Shisui gripped on to his arm tightly. The male leaned down with an expectant expression ready to hear Shisui's words.

The man coughed a little, weakly focusing on Sasuke's face. It took a lot of his effort to speak to the younger Uchiha. "Hey, whatever happens to me," He coughed to the side. "Please take care of Aika and Mitsuko." He pleaded the younger male in a state of desperation. Shisui could feel it. He could feel the end of his life coming soon. Not now. But maybe in a few weeks.

Sasuke pressed his lips together forcefully, adamant on not letting Shisui leave the world just yet. "You'll be fine, man. We'll take care of you. You'll live. You have a strong heart." Sasuke nodded at him.

Shisui managed a weak smile. "Sasuke," He whispered hoarsely. "I'm so glad to have taken care of this heart for four years. I know it was hard for you then. It was hard for me too, knowing my best friend died. But," Another set of coughs racked his system and Sasuke gripped on tighter to the male's forearm. "But," He regained his breath. "I'm happy that I got to let my best friend live within me for four more years."

"I'm sorry, Sasuke. I'm sorry that I didn't take care of his heart this time around." He apologized sullenly, tears escaping the corners of his eyes.

Sasuke forced himself to stay. To listen to the male's words to him. "I'm sure that in another life I must have done a favor to Itachi to allow him to live or to be stronger. That favor must have cost my life. I'm sure that in this life he must have returned the favor to allow me to live on for four more years and to be stronger. I've never felt so strong my entire life. With his heart in me, I felt more secure. Very soon, I'll be able to thank him. When I see him, I'll tell him all about you and how you've turned out. Itachi was always very proud of you." Shisui nodded tiredly.

Sasuke furrowed his brows at his words. In another life? What is he talking about? Nevertheless, he wouldn't let his brother's best friend die. "You'll live, Shisui. You will."

* * *

Suigetsu wished he could die on the spot right now.

"So, um, Mrs. Chiro." Oh, _god_. "You mentioned that you had multiple," Cringe. "Sexual," Wince. "Partners," Internal gagging. "In the past?"

"Well, of course. I'd say at least eight or nine. I can't really remember." Mrs. Chiro answered.

Oh my god.

"Ahem." Suigetsu cleared his throat, very disgusted.

"It's like a party, you know. How do you youngsters put it?" She fumbled around with her words before deciding on a conclusion. "Oh right, an _orgy_." Cue choking coming from Suigetsu.

Oh. My. God.

"There's a group of us that go around." Mrs. Chiro shrugged as if it was the most casual thing on earth. **No**, it was **not**.

"You can only play so much mahjong." She looked at the young doctor for his opinion and Suigetsu nodded silently with a disturbed expression all over his face.

He placed down his tools and stood from his stool. His eyes were burning from what he had just seen for the past thirty minutes. "Um, the rest will have to come in to be examined." He shakily said.

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?" The old lady drawled. Suigetsu cringed internally. He shuddered at the thought of spending his whole night looking at…_right_.

"No. No, I would not love that." He replied stiffly. He sighed exasperatedly and told her, "I will need to take a blood sample and a swab of your," He almost cried. "Sores and cervix." He finished difficultly.

She pointed a bony accusing finger at him. "I dare you to take a picture and put it on the internet. I'll hunt you down if you do." She threatened and Suigetsu shook his head disturbed entirely by the absurd thought.

"No, no, why would I _ever_ do…**that**?"

OH. MY. GOD.

* * *

"So, Sasuke and I have known each other for years." Naruto extended his arms to physically show how long.

Kankuro could almost smack himself. Naruto was horrible at keeping people distracted. He fidgeted and acted so awkward that it was **so** obvious! The only reason why he had asked Naruto in the first place was because Sasuke was busy, Sakura was his boss, and Neji outright declined when he knew it was Tenten. Kankuro swore the guy had some kind of crush on her.

Anyway, back on to the selected target.

"That's really cool." Tenten nodded, obviously showing interest in his story.

Naruto laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, I know, right?" Kankuro had to hold himself back from slamming his head against the table. Naruto's traveling eyes landed on the nurses approaching the table and he glanced at Kankuro to see that the male nurse was showing him a thumb up. That was the signal.

"Oh, look, it's the nurses!" Obviously, Naruto, obviously. "They've been on their feet all shift. Let's move aside for them, alright?" He nodded at Tenten, who agreed and began to stand.

That's when she realized she couldn't at all.

When she stood, the chair followed after her. Someone had super-glued her pants to the chair. She spun around, her eyes studying what had happened. Her colleagues surrounding her laughed at her demise yet Tenten didn't even blush in embarrassment.

She rolled her eyes and stood akimbo. "Very funny! You super-glued my butt to the chair." She laughed at herself.

"Ms. Tenten, the hospital's gonna need that chair." Kankuro cheekily teased. Tenten raised a daring brow at him.

"Oh, you want it back?" She smiled at him innocently. "Oh, I'll **give** it back." She casually rolled her pants down all the while chuckling at everybody. It wasn't an amused chuckle. No. It was a threatening chuckle. The kind that was like oh-you-asked-for-it.

Everyone's eyes widened when her scrub pants dropped to the ground, revealing her bright neon pink bicycle shorts she wore underneath. She stepped out from her pants and spun around, willing everybody to look.

"Alright, everybody take a good look at my ass." She stuck her behind out tauntingly. Twirling around with a satisfied smirk, she mocked Kankuro with a bow. "I worked _hard_ for this. This is the fruit of my labor." She placed her hand on her hips as she flaunted off her behind.

Kankuro was speechless. Naruto and everybody was cat-calling and applauding her brash response. Tenten was enjoying the limelight until…

"That's very nice, Tenten." She jumped when Neji appeared behind her with his hands in his pockets, eyes traveling downwards.

"N-Neji?" This time, she pinked. She did not expect him to be observing all of this.

"I don't think you'll be allowed to work like that though." He smirked and Tenten blushed. She was more embarrassed of the fact that she had just flaunted her ass in front of Neji than the fact that she did all that in front of her colleagues.

"Well, I-" She was cut off by the sound of breaking glass and everybody screamed at the interruption. Turns out the Ichiraku food truck's windows were smashed by something that landed on top of it.

Tenten shrieked a little, surprised by the sound behind her. Arms protectively wrapped around her form and turned her away from the flying shards of glass. She squeaked when the ordeal passed more or less and Kankuro was already climbing up the ladder to check on what had caused such an impact. Cautiously glancing up, she was met with Neji's neck and chin. He faced away from her as he studied the food truck with wary eyes.

"Um, Neji, you can let go now." She timidly tugged on his shirt. The male turned to her with surprise. Tenten realized that he hadn't even noticed that he had pulled her in towards him to protect her from the glass. Tenten's heart sunk a little. That meant that he would have done it for any other girl and not just her.

"Oh, right." He pulled away from her and turned back to the food truck.

Kankuro was on the roof of the truck while Naruto followed behind. "It's Naruto's junkie!" He cried in horror. The deathly male lay mangled on the top of the truck cradled in the crater he created by himself. Naruto's eyes widened and he rushed to the male. His arm twitched irregularly and his sunken eyes were open and dilated.

Tenten covered her mouth, hiding her horror. She'd seen the guy a few times and the last she saw him was when Naruto drove him out of the hospital with a warning. She was pulled back to reality when Neji gripped onto her arm.

"Hey, let's go get you some new scrubs." He glanced down at her bare legs and she flushed a little, nodding quietly as she allowed his warm hand on her lower back to lead her into the hospital.

Would it be too soon to say that she has a crush on the guy?

* * *

Ino pushed through the swinging doors with Sakura beside her and Neji tailing behind. She held a folder in her manicured to perfection nails. Inside it contained as much information on Isamu that she could gather and find.

"So, it's not bipolar or a form of schizophrenia. It's most definitely a multiple personality disorder." She concluded.

"Then, who's this Hara?" Sakura questioned her with one of her hands in her pockets.

"Hara is an eleven-year-old girl alter ego. She comes out when Isamu feels pressurized or unwilling to do something." She glanced down at her folder and opened it to grab a child's drawing. She handed it to Neji while Sakura glanced over to take a peek. "This is how Hara drew herself when I asked her to." A drawing of a blonde haired girl with a smile on her face filled the page.

Neji furrowed his brows at the drawing. "It's brought on by abuse, right?"

Ino bit her lip at that one. "Maybe yes. Maybe no." Both doctors stared at her weirdly and she began to explain herself. "Well, it is obviously related to something traumatic experienced in his early childhood. However, I feel like there's something missing."

"Then again, the trauma –could be physical or emotional or worse, sexual- must be really bad for him to show symptoms of multiple personality disorder at this age." Ino shrugged, truly unsure yet skeptical about this case.

Sakura nodded at the psychiatrist solemnly. "What's the next best step?"

"I would love to try to bring out more of his personalities. He shows two right now but I have a feeling there's more. And generally, out of all the personalities, there is one that usually knows the truth. However, Isamu's currently asleep after the hour I spent with him. So, all we have to do now is wait." Ino answered truthfully.

"Meanwhile, we're still waiting on that background check of the mother." Neji added and Ino heaved a sigh at that one. Getting background checks was a pain.

Sakura licked her lips in thought. She pointed at Ino. "Alright, get Nara-san to hurry up that background check. He knows how to cut through a bunch of crap." She nodded affirmatively at Ino.

"On it." And the blonde female left their side to approach the hospital's administrator for the first time after he got promoted. Sure, they had seen each other around but they had never really talked to each. Ino found this as a chance to meet this hospital's new admin.

"Doctor Haruno, there's a jumper at the Ichiraku food truck from the 'Club House'." Konan came jogging down the hall once she found the pink-haired doctor.

"Oh my god –Who?" Sakura furrowed her brows incredulously at the duty nurse.

"Naruto's junkie. He found his way up there and took a dive. Naruto's already on it but we have four MVA*'s coming up in three minutes." She pointed at Neji, who understood immediately that he was the one taking the four MVA's.

Sakura sighed tiredly and nodded at the duty nurse. "Alright, I'll check it out."

Sakura knew that the board was going to give the hospital shit for this.

* * *

The beeping from the monitor sounded like a siren wailing incessantly. It was only a constant reminder that this junkie's life was teetering on Naruto's hands. Tenten was pumping air from a bag valve mask into the junkie's mouth. A bandage was rolled around his head as Naruto checked his eyes with a light.

"Okay, one hundred grams of mannitol* and hyperventilate him stat. Someone get neurosurgery down here right now!" Naruto barked out.

The dreaded monotonous beep rang through the room. A nurse turned to Naruto in panic. "We just lost his pulse, doctor. There's no perfusion*-" "I know. I know there's no perfusion." Naruto grabbed a mini step ladder and placed it at the side of his bed. "Ten, start compressions now." Tenten nodded and hurried up the step ladder.

"Natsumi, give him an amp of AED*!"

Naruto was frustrated with himself. He felt guilt in his heart. He wondered if he should have given the guy the drugs and he wouldn't be here fighting for his life. He had to save him.

"Alright, everybody, we're going to do whatever we can to save this man. Because Kami knows…we didn't do anything when he needed to be saved." He frowned.

Maybe he should have passed him to a therapist at the hospital. Or maybe he should have given the guy a small dose of the pain meds he wanted. The guilt was killing him alive.

The start up of the AED whined in his ears as the two pads came down on the junkie's chest hard to restart his heart. Naruto prayed to Kami that he would be saved.

* * *

Sakura quietly entered the private room of Uchiha Shisui. The male was asleep on the bed while Tsunade was checking up on Shisui's heart by doing a transthoracic echocardiogram*. She moved the transducer around Shisui's chest, a blue-green-yellow image appearing on the screen next to her.

"You…wanted to talk…to me?" Sakura asked awkwardly. Honestly, being around the loquacious and boisterous lady was quite intimidating. She knew so much and too much honestly. However, she was tight-lipped about everything. All Sakura knew about her was that she was a sought-after cardiac surgeon. Talented, well-received, good reputation. Tsunade would be her choice of mentor if she was into cardiovascular* surgery.

Tsunade nodded with a tense smile, turning off the monitor and replacing the transducer on its hook. She faced the fidgety doctor with a forced expression. "I did." She said curtly.

"Listen," Tsunade started out glumly. "I can't fix Shisui's heart."

Sakura felt her walls crash down. She knew Shisui. Not as well as Sasuke, Naruto or Tsunade did but she knew the guy, met the guy, and spoke with the guy. He was a lovely man to be around with and it was such a shame that he had to suffer like this. However, deep down inside, Sakura knew her heart wasn't aching for the man with an unfixable heart. Her heart was aching for the man who once had her heart and she had his.

"The bullet tore through his semi-lunar plane, his valves, his conduction system." Tsunade grab a cloth and wiped away the remains of the gel on his chest. "I'm amazed that his heart's still beating." She remarked dryly.

Sakura closed her eyes and sighed. "He's gonna need a new heart then." She let out a dry chuckle, eyes still shut in remorse. "A new heart that he'll never get in time because this one is already a donor." She glanced down at her hands sadly.

"All I can do is put him on ECMO* and repair his valves but…" She trailed off, shaking her head sullenly at the sleeping male. "It'll give him a month or two to live. Get him on a list and cross our fingers. But that's a rare chance according to reality."

Sakura glanced back up, realizing something. "Are you going to tell Sasuke?" She questioned warily.

Tsunade turned to her with a loud sigh. "And that's the reason why I called you here to talk." She paused, organizing her words. "I need you to talk to him." She stared at Sakura expectantly.

Sakura shook her head. Impossible. "You know we're not…together anymore, right?"

Tsunade let out a chuckle. "Oh, I know you're not a couple anymore." She stood from her chair, assessing the young girl before her.

"I've seen him lose it before. I know you've seen him lose it as well. I've seen him in bad shape before. I know you've seen him in worse conditions. However, every single time, you manage to comfort him, talk to him, and make him feel a little better about his life and himself. I'm an old family friend of the Uchiha's so I know. I've seen his birth and his first walk and his first words. I've seen the kid grow and mature into an independent man. But I've seen him fall and fall and nobody was there to catch him." Tsunade's eyes grew pained and Sakura bit her lip, wondering why she was being told this.

"Why are you telling me this?"

Tsunade sighed into a wry smile. "Why, you ask. Well, Sakura, there was one day I visited the Uchiha household. Itachi greeted me at the door and led me to the kitchen. I sat down and spoke a little with Mikoto. I asked her where was Sasuke. She told me outside with Naruto. I walked outside expecting to see the Uchiha in some horrible brawl with the blonde idiot. Kami knows the two knocked heads the moment they met each other. But then, I saw something different. Instead, I saw a seven-year-old Naruto playing around with a fire truck and a seven-year-old Sasuke sitting alone on the sidewalk. I thought the two had an argument or something but later on, I found out that Sasuke got yelled at by Fugaku again. You should know about their _discrepancies_. Sasuke was a sensitive kid at that time and took every word to heart. Naruto couldn't help him and gave up, eventually playing by himself. And then guess who I saw next?"

Sakura's eyes widened the memory traveling back into her mind. It was the first time she had met Sasuke.

"_Geez, teme, you're so moody today! Fine, I'll play by myself!" Sakura blinked at the loud blonde kid, who huffed childishly at an onyx-haired child curled up like a ball on the edge of the sidewalk. He was staring down at the grey asphalt road and a sad and lonely aura hovered around him. He seemed to have ignored the blonde's outbursts. _

_The blonde stomped back to the big house's front yard and sat down, playing with a small fire truck. Sakura's doe-like green eyes gazed at the sad, little boy through her living room window. She wondered why he felt alone when he had a friend right there that he could play with. She jumped down from her chair and tottered to the kitchen, where her mother prepared lunch._

"_Oka-san?" She called in her small seven-year-old voice. Her mother spun around, staring down at her daughter with kind green eyes. "Yes, sweetie?" She cooed, hoisting her daughter up and placing her on the kitchen counter._

"_Who lives in that big white mansion across the street?" Her little arms opened wide to express the size of the house. Mebuki giggled at her daughter's antics._

"_Why, the Uchiha's do. Don't you remember Mikoto-san and Itachi-san visiting us yesterday?" The seven-year-old glanced off in thought. She remembered the nice long, dark-haired pretty woman, who visited their house yesterday with delicious cookies. Along with her was another long, raven-haired male with smile lines, who she introduced as her eldest son. The boy on the sidewalk shared many similarities with the two so he must be her son._

_She nodded. "They brought delicious cookies!" She cheered. "Oka-san, do they have another son?" Sakura asked her mother. _

"_Oh, yes, I heard from Mikoto-san that he's the same age as you. Maybe you can play with each other." Mebuki returned to her cooking._

_Sakura puckered her lips thoughtfully. "But oka-san, why does he look so sad?" She asked innocently._

_Mebuki chuckled, slicing an onion. "Maybe he just feels sad today." She couldn't possibly provide an answer to her daughter. She didn't even know the Uchiha's that well. _

_Sakura paused, thinking about her next question. "Oka-san, how do you make someone not sad anymore?" _

_Mebuki wondered what got her daughter so inquisitive all of a sudden. Nevertheless she answered every single one of her daughter's questions happily and to the best ability. "Well, Sakura, it depends on the person." _

"_Then, how do you make oto-san happy?" _

_Mebuki smiled at her only offspring. "Because I'm by his side all the time. Because I give oto-san my love and my care. Because I love oto-san." She answered lovingly._

_Sakura grinned beamingly at her mother. "So, I have to love him to make him happy?" Was her innocent question. Mebuki almost laughed at her daughter's logic._

"_Oh, no, sweetie, that's only between couples. But why don't you go over there and talk to him? Get to know his name. Give him a smile and a hug and see what happens." She encouraged and her little cherry blossom brightened, gesturing for her mother to lift her back down to the ground. Mebuki obliged and laughed at how her daughter had immediately rushed out the door._

_Sakura skipped down her new house's steps and her front yard. She glanced to the side and gasped. It was a dandelion. She plucked the small flower and went on her merry way towards the sullen little boy. He hadn't moved an inch ever since Sakura left the living room window. Approaching the dark-haired boy, she cautiously sat beside him, staring at him with unblinking bright viridian eyes._

"_Hey, you? Are you sad?" She prodded the young boy. He merely dug his head further into his arms and mumbled out a reply. She furrowed her pink brows and leaned in closer to hear what he said. "Can you repeat that?" He mumbled into his arms once more. This time, slightly louder. Sakura still couldn't comprehend. "What was that again?" _

_The boy suddenly lifted his head from his arms and glared at the annoying pink-haired girl. "I said leave me a-" He froze mid-sentence, caught by her mesmerizing emerald orbs. She blinked at him innocently. And then she smiled and little Sasuke felt a wave of warmth wash over him. _

"_I'm Haruno Sakura. I'm new to this neighborhood. It's a really pretty place." She glanced behind her back. "I love your house! It's so big!" She appraised, turning back to the boy with a bright grin. "My house is over there." She pointed over to a rustic baby blue house across the street. "It's not as big as yours but I like it." She giggled to herself._

"_My oka-san told me you're seven too!" She squealed. "I'm seven as well! What school are you going to? Are you going to Konoha Academy? Maybe we'll be in the same class!" She exclaimed brightly. Sasuke gaped at her in a daze. He hadn't met someone this happy ever since Naruto. And Naruto was already a living sunshine. _

_She suddenly simmered down and curled up into a ball like him, resting her head on her arms while she stared at him with sparkling green eyes. "Say, you look sad. I don't know why you're so sad. I don't like it when people are sad." She pouted. _

"_You know, my oka-san told me that she makes my oto-san happy by loving him." She zoomed in closer to the point that their faces were so near they could have almost kissed. Of course, little seven-year-olds didn't know that. Sasuke could feel his ears and his cheeks go red and prayed that Sakura would be oblivious to it. Thankfully, Sakura was as innocent as a baby. "Do I have to love you to make you happy?" _

_Sasuke's eyes widened at her question. Obviously, the boy was a little more well-versed in the acts of love. His brother had explained it to him once before so he knew the different types of love. Sasuke's blush deepened even more. _

"_Wha-?" He was about to answer her when she suddenly pulled back, giving Sasuke some room to breathe. "But oka-san said that's only between couples. I don't know what couples are but I think they're like mommies and daddies." Sakura nodded at her conclusion. _

_Sasuke thought this girl was weird. She rambled too much. She didn't know what love was. She was a little on the quirky side. And she had just invaded Sasuke's personal bubble. But why did she make him feel so warm and weird?_

"_Oka-san said that I should talk to you." She turned to him with puckered lips. "I just talked a lot to you. In fact, you barely said a word. But that's okay because you don't know me very well. What's your name again?" Sakura blinked at him innocently. _

_Sasuke grew bewildered at her jumpy speech. "Um…"_

"_Um?" She cocked her head to the side. She scrunched her nose up adorably. "That's a weird name. Uchiha Um. Oh, no offense to you." She quickly reassured. _

_Sasuke's cheeks flushed red and quickly tried to cover up his mistake. "I-It's Sasuke." He declared and Sakura looked surprised. "Oh, really? Now, that's a better name. I like Sasuke. It's cute." Sasuke would slap his cheeks for reddening further._

"_Okay, now I've talked to you. I know your name. I need to give you a smile." She smiled at him and Sasuke's obsidian eyes widened at her beaming grin. She stopped and glanced away in thought._

"_What else did oka-san say to do?" She hummed, rewinding her memories. She jumped when she found it and Sasuke jumped along with her startled by the loud sound. "Ah, a hug!" She giggled and wrapped her little arms around Sasuke. Sasuke froze in her embrace. His thoughts were along the line of 'Oh my god, what should I do? A girl is hugging me!'_

_She pulled back and showed him a thumb up. "Now, do you feel better?" She asked genuinely curious. With her blinking her shining green orbs at him expectantly, Sasuke found it hard to answer. Instead, he gave her an absentminded nod. She squealed in delight and was about to say something when Mebuki called her for lunch._

"_Oops, I have to go. Lunch time!" She rose and Sasuke almost pleaded her to stay. She turned to leave when she felt something in her fingers. Of course! She almost forgot. She spun around again and handed the dandelion to the confused boy. He took it with hesitant fingers and Sakura grinned at him prettily._

"_Oka-san told me that dandelion's mean happiness and faithfulness. I hope you always feel happy! And when you're sad, just come to me!" She pointed at herself proudly. "I'll make you feel better like just now!" She giggled. _

"_Sakura!" Her mother called for her one more time. She spun around, hollering back a reply. _

_She sent Sasuke a cute wave. "See you, Sasuke-kun!" She turned around, skipping like a preppy princess back to her humble abode. Sasuke watched her retreating form with a dazed look, the dandelion clutched tightly within his fingers._

_It was on that day Sakura met Sasuke and their friendship that blossomed into love began._

Sakura snapped out of her memories and stared back at Tsunade with an understanding look. Tsunade nodded at Sakura with a pleased smile.

"You were always there for him. To catch him when he fell. Suddenly, the sad little boy with a sensitive heart was just a memory to him. You don't see how much you mean to him, Sakura. Even if you aren't together anymore, you will still be one of his most important persons in his life. It is not an understatement that your presence has changed his life for the better." Tsunade nodded affirmatively.

"If you won't tell him, at least be here when I break the news. That way you can catch him when he falls again." Tsunade suggested.

"Remember Sakura. No matter where both of you end up in life, you will never forget the first time you met him and you caught him. I doubt Sasuke will forget either. No matter what, you two are inseparable. Even if you move on and get married, Sasuke will always be there for you. Even if he moves on and gets married, you'll always be there for him. Because both of you have always shared something special and nothing will change the fact that you both benefit from each other."

At that moment, Sasuke entered the room with a wary look. His eyes went from Tsunade to Sakura. "What's wrong?"

Tsunade sighed and Sakura pressed her lips together tightly, making a decision. She turned to study the male. Tired eyes and drained skin. Slightly disheveled appearance from the worry that has been eating him inside his heart. Cold hands and wary looks.

"Listen, Sasuke, I won't be able to fix Shisui's heart."

At that moment, when Sasuke's face fell and his walls went tumbling down, Sakura made a decision to be there for him once more.

To catch him when he fell.

* * *

**A/N:**

I think little Sasuke and little Sakura are so adorable! Eek! I was squealing while writing about them. The season just ended and now that I know what happens in the whole series, it'll make planning this story easier. At least I won't be basing this story off every single accident in the series. If it comes down to that, then I really question my abilities as an author.

One person said that having an explanation for acronyms and certain medical terms would help so I would definitely start now. I'll be going back and editing each document so that new readers will be able to start with definitions and whatnot. Medical terms that will be explained will be marked with an *. Terms that have been explained before will not be explained again. The terms underneath are in chronological appearance order.

**Medical terms explained:**

MVA – Multi-vehicle accident

Mannitol – A prescription drug that can treat various issues. In this chapter, it was given to treat brain swelling.

Perfusion – the process of delivering blood to a capillary bed in its biological tissue (Credit: Wikipedia)

AED – Automated external defibrillator

Transthoracic echocardiogram – the process of using the echocardiography transducer (like an ultrasound basically), placing it on the chest wall of the patient and taking images of the overall heart. A simple way to assess a heart's health. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Cardiovascular – regarding the heart and blood vessels

ECMO – stands for "extracorporeal membrane oxygenation"; a medical procedure performed outside the body (extracorporeal) technique of providing both cardiac and respiratory support oxygen to patients whose lungs or heart are damaged or diseased severely to the point of little to no function. (Credit: Wikipedia)

**R&R. Peace.**


	10. First Love

**Disclaimer:** Any similarities to actual cases, persons, or events are purely coincidental. Medical terms will be used and descriptions may or may not be detailed. I'll try my best not to make you puke. Do not trust all the medical terms I'll be using. I'm neither a doctor nor a medical student. Everything related to medicine or scientific subjects are the results of a ton of research. I do not own Naruto and the characters. I do not own or am plagiarizing NBC's 'The Night Shift'.

**Medical terms marked with an ***** are explained at the end of the chapter.**

* * *

"Hey, Aika, look-" Naruto groaned inwardly at having to break the news to Shisui's wife. When Sasuke pushed the job of breaking this poor lady's heart, he knew it wouldn't be pretty. All around him, he could hear the nurses on the phones, speaking to every heart donor list they could find. After the news, Sakura had pleaded them to find a heart as soon as they could with Sasuke by her side. The equation was set.

Sakura's authority + Sasuke's influence = **T**riple **K**nock**o**ut

"I don't understand, Naruto. You said that you could fix his heart!" She argued frantically, her eyes watering instantly.

Naruto placed his arms on her shoulders to comfort her. "I know. I know I said that. But I didn't know it was that bad." He bit his lip anxiously as she choked out a sob. "But he looked better!" Naruto nodded assuringly. "He's stable for now. However…he'll need a new heart."

At that, her face fell. She knew what that meant. She knew **exactly** what that meant. "There was too much damage to the-the transplant –Hey, let's talk in here." Noting that she was about to explode, he directed her into a private room, where they could talk alone.

"Not again, Naruto. I've suffered and endured the last time but I don't know how I can do it again! How can _**he**_ endure this again?! He's a good man, Naruto. Why does this have to happen to him? Out of all the billion people in the world, it has to be him! He goes to church; he helps everybody! He's dedicated to his work and family…his family, oh, Naruto, what am I going to do without him? What's Mitsuko going to do without him? She needs her father, Naruto!" She covered her grief-stricken face with her hands as she wailed for her husband.

Naruto stared at the weeping woman with sorrow. _Family. Kids. _It made him think about Hinata and their twins she was carrying. What would they do without him? It was something he didn't even want to think about.

"Please, Naruto, you, Sasuke, and Tsunade are the only ones who understand. Please save him. Please." She clutched on to his scrubs and wept on his shirt. He frowned, calmly patting her back to sooth her cries.

"I'll see what I can do, Aika." He declared.

They needed a heart. Pronto.

* * *

"Nara-san." Shikamaru spun around slowly, hearing his name being called by a familiar voice. He studied the blonde-haired and blue-eyed woman dressed in a purple blouse and black pencil skirt. She smiled at him politely and bowed her head a little as a form of respect. Shikamaru was impressed that for once, someone in this place had respect for their higher-ups.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino, this hospital's attending psychiatrist." She held a hand out for a handshake but was surprised when she didn't get one. She opened her eyes and blinked at the shocked man.

"Is there something wrong?" She titled her head to the side in concern.

"Y-Yamanaka Ino?" He looked bewildered as he took a step forward cautiously.

She nodded slowly in confusion. Yes, that was her name. _Don't wear it out._ "Yes?"

He chuckled a little, slouching while stuffing his hands in his pockets. Ino swore that for a moment there she knew him from somewhere. "Nara Shikamaru from Konoha Academy." He quirked an expectant brow at her. She should remember him. After all, their parents were good friends.

_Nara…Shikamaru? Konoha Academy? OH MY GOD!_ "SHIKAMARU?!" She exploded in recognition, fire lighting in her eyes angrily. Shikamaru smirked, glad that she had remembered him after all. "THE LAZY ASS?!"

…Okay, that was uncalled for.

He grumbled in protest to that name. "Seriously, Ino? God, you're still as loud as ever, troublesome woman." He twisted his pinky in his ear from emphasis. She seethed on the spot. "And you're still as lazy as ever, you pineapple head! I can't believe you're my boss. Like, what did a lazy ass like you do to be such a big shot, huh?" His eye twitched at the insulting name.

"Hard work and my 200 over IQ." He answered simply enough.

Ino huffed and glared at the uncaring male. "Hard work is not a part of your vocabulary." She pointed at him accusingly. "When I heard that a Nara was my boss, I did not expect it to be _**you**_ of all people!"

"I'd never thought I'd have a noisy Yamanaka on board."

"Gah, you never changed at all! Other than your height and your clothes, you're still the same lazy ass who complains and whines about every single thing!"

His eyes locked onto her hair. "I'd say the same goes for you, blonde bimbo."

_Snap!_

Shikamaru felt the air shift and he froze, the shivers traveling up his spine. It felt the same way when he called Chouji, the MRI tech, a fatso. That was a company dinner he never wanted to relive. And now, he _might have just _ensured his death.

Ino cracked her knuckles with deathly, red eyes that spelled danger. "**What. Did. You. Call. Me.**" Shikamaru gulped and his gears started turning in his brain to think of an escape plan. His eyes avoided hers as he looked around for a way out when they came across the folder she held in her hands.

_Bingo!_ "Ino, don't you have something for me?" He gestured to her folder and the furious woman calmed down for a moment to realize that she did have something to ask the lackadaisical admin.

"Oh, right, I need you to help me push through a background check," She handed him the folder to peruse through. "On a mother of an eleven-year-old boy, who shows symptoms of a multiple personality disorder." She explained, watching the male's beady eyes study the report on the mother and the son.

He closed the folder and handed it back to her, gesturing for her to walk with him to the front. "Abuse?"

"Maybe."

"What form?"

"I don't know. It could be emotional, sexual, physical, mental, but definitely traumatizing. This is why I need the background check so badly. I need to see if there's something I can maybe pin on the mother that will lead us to the cause of his behavior." Ino answered, peeking at Shikamaru carefully. "You'll do it, right? For an old friend?" She smiled a little, trying to be hopeful.

After things between her and Shikamaru…were _complicated_.

Shikamaru paused for a moment, nodding at her words. "I'll do it for the hospital and for your job. We're old **classmates**. We were never friends." Ino's eyes widened at his words with hurt. As she halted in her steps, flashbacks of that fateful day where her young fourteen-year-old heart was broken.

"You want the background check or not?" His annoyed voice brought her back to earth as she quickened her steps to catch up to his retreating back.

Staring at his back, she concluded in her mind that maybe it was all just a delusion. That her years in Konoha Academy were all lies created by her to keep her heart afloat and glued together.

Nara Shikamaru. Was he just another lie she created to help herself?

Studying his changed appearance, it was obvious he wasn't the Nara Shikamaru from her childhood. Maybe he really was a lie that she created from her heart and mind to protect herself.

Maybe Nara Shikamaru wasn't the boy, who diverted her heart away from rejection. Maybe he wasn't the boy, who sat next to her during lunch and listened to all her rambles. Maybe he wasn't the boy, who helped her with her studies despite her being branded as a hopeless student. Maybe he wasn't the boy, who inspired her to be a psychiatrist. Maybe he wasn't the boy, who promised to protect her no matter what.

Maybe he wasn't the boy, who stole her heart and made her think she had a chance.

Maybe Nara Shikamaru was actually the boy, who broke her heart with unreciprocated feelings and left her in the dust the next day.

Honestly, Ino couldn't figure it out anymore. She'd lost hope trying to keep friends. They'd leave her anyway. After Shikamaru, Ino was a free bird, wandering here and there through different social groups. But truthfully, in her heart, she only new one group she would fit into. And that was with Shikamaru.

But she convinced herself that she was over him a long time ago. She was not a mere child anymore. Anything of the past was something for her to look back on and laugh at her silliness. To anyone else, if Ino had told them about her story, they'd all tell her to forgive and forget. After all, what would a fourteen-year-old know about love?

But because they weren't her. Because they weren't there to know what she truly felt at that time. They would never understand.

For Ino, as she gazed at the back of Shikamaru, seeing a ghost of his fourteen-year-old self next to him, she realized that no matter what, no matter who she was enamored with in the future, no matter who was her future husband or her future love, she would never forget.

For Ino, it was tough to forget. She was sure that there would be no one else in the world, who would be able to make her feel that way again other than Shikamaru. Regardless of whom else she would love in the future, though they may make her feel similar emotions, she would never forget Shikamaru.

After all, a girl could never forget her **first love**. Her first love that rejected her and left her heart in the dust.

* * *

"Get me your supervisor then." Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the blonde in front of him even though he wasn't exactly mad at her. Pulling the phone away from his ear for a moment, he questioned the female. "Who called child services?" Ino shrugged. "The situation called for it. Everyone knew what they were doing." Shikamaru seemed satisfied with that answer and returned to the phone.

"You are the supervisor, am I right? Then, you should understand what's going on. You do? Good." He shot Ino a look that told her he had everything under control. "Now, if you don't get me that background check on the mother pronto, I will personally phone every single one of your bosses right now and tell them you can't do your job. How can I do that? I'm a Nara. My family controls half the land in Konoha." Ino rolled her eyes at that. _Yes, Nara, take a good moment to flaunt your wealth._ Even though she knew Shikamaru wasn't the egotistical type, sometimes he had to "dangle" his power in people's faces to get important things done.

"_Goood_. Great. Thanks." He hung up with a content smirk. Ino raised an expectant brow and had to smile at him brightly when he nodded once in affirmation. "You'll get the background check." He reassured.

Ino then pouted all of a sudden. "_And_ child services." She whined a little. Shikamaru had the cheek to crack a smile at her action. For some reason, he had been a little put off by Ino's work demeanor. For one, he never knew that the Yamanaka could be serious. If he recalled, the girl was always flamboyant and easy-going.

To be honest, he didn't know if he could adjust to the new Ino. Seeing her again after many years was a shock enough. He never pictured the hospital to be Ino's scene. He had always imagined her in a fluffier location with flashing lights and dancing girls. Honestly, he didn't expect her to be intrigued by the mind.

"So, how's life?" It was a casual question enough yet it sent Shikamaru feeling flustered. Yes, how was life for him? Not so very good at the moment.

Ino caught the look of anxiety and guardedness at her conversation opener. As a psychiatrist, it was her job to catch the small flickers of emotion in her patient's eyes or face. She felt the river of concern pour over her form and she wondered what had happened to her old classmate. For one small question about his life to fluster him so much…what could have happened to the usually cool and calm lazy ass she knew in her past?

"Ino!" The two snapped their attention towards the incoming pinkette doctor who held a worried expression on her face.

For once, Shikamaru could have never been gladder for the doctor's untimely entrances.

He waved goodbye to Ino, who opened her mouth to say something, but was caught by Sakura first. Ino stared at the slouched posture of the Nara in worry and set a reminder in her brain to ask him about it later. She turned to the pink-haired doctor and wondered what got her so _anxious_.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" She asked concernedly. Sakura avoided her eyes, pursing her lips together firmly. "Ino, I need you to talk to Sasuke-kun." She sighed out.

_Sasuke? _"Doctor Uchiha? Is there something wrong with him?" She raised a brow at the doctor when a melancholy look flashed past her eyes. "Shisui's heart…he needs a new heart."

Ino's eyes widened at the revelation. "Oh…no, that's horrible. He won't get one in time." Sakura nodded sadly. "That's why I need you to talk to Sasuke-kun. He…He's not taking it very well."

Sakura understood that she agreed to catch him when he fell. But she was having second thoughts. This was personal and definitely heart-wrenching for Sasuke. For her to talk with him in such a fragile state scared her. She wasn't sure if he'd listen.

"Sakura, **you** need to talk to him."

Green eyes widened as she quickly refused. "But I-"

"Honestly, Sakura, you are the only one he'll listen to. Years of psychiatry can never compare to having an anchor, Sakura. **You** are his anchor. You've seen him spiral. I've never seen that happen. Besides," Ino smiled encouragingly down at the girl. "I'm just a colleague. You're a friend, a really good friend of his. Don't you think that with Sasuke's personality he would listen better to someone who knew his heart better than he knew his?"

Sakura was silent in thought. Ino giggled a little, patting the girl on the shoulder. "I have to go check on Isamu. Go talk him. You can do it." The blonde winked at the uncertain girl before walking off in success.

_Operation: SasuSaku is in progress!_

* * *

The beaming face of Shisui stared back at him mockingly on the luminescent screen of his phone. Times back then were, for a lack of a word, _dandy_. Despite the tumultuous twists and turns of the war, the twenty men in his squadron were strong with the chains of camaraderie. He knew every single one of them from their basic information to their idiosyncrasies. For such a callous male like Sasuke, he treasured his relations and his bonds.

Because it was **bonds** that kicked his arse back on track when he took a detour.

"May I?" Black met green, sparkling eyes that smiled upon him with tenderness. She didn't even give him a chance to reply as she set herself next to his hunched figure on the cold bench. The answer was in his eyes. Transparent, Sasuke was not. For the couple, it was an understanding between them that not even their long-time friendship with Naruto could rival. It was an understanding that came from love. For the two, it was an after-effect of their years together. What they shared could never be reanimated.

"How's the boy?" He asked first. If not him, then Sakura would jump on the open chance. He was not ready to talk about _that _just yet. After all, they both knew what the conversation would lead to. Testing the waters? Not so much. Small talk? Close enough.

The ends of her lips hitched upwards slightly in a blithe smile. She found his attempt to steer the conversation away from him futile and utterly _Sasuke_. He was a pain-in-the-ass when it came to deep talks. Especially the one she was about to have with him right at this very moment. "Isamu's sleeping right now. Doctor Hyuuga must have mentioned something about him to you for you to ask about him."

"Hn, his case is peculiar."

"Indeed. However, it is Ino's case and I shall let her deal with it on her own. Psychological diagnosis is not my forte." She chuckled, leaning back a little relaxedly into the cool mahogany of the bench.

"Same." He replied simply, guard dropping when the conversation had yet to take that dreaded turn into **his** land.

"But I am good at listening to people's problems."

And it just swerved right into it.

Groaning, he inclined backwards into the wood of the bench with a tormented sigh. "Why are you always so concerned about me?"

Sakura shifted closer, worry dancing in the eyes that were fixated on his disgruntled features. "Because I care about you." It was a simple answer, really. One that shouldn't have set off fireworks in his heart. Honestly, it shouldn't. They weren't even together anymore. It shouldn't matter.

But it did and Sasuke cursed his traitor of a heart. Why did he have to be the one who never moved on after all these years? Why did Sakura have to be the one who did and left him in the dust? Why did it have to be so damn _upside-down_? Weren't girls the sensitive ones? Why him? Why their relationship? Why not her?

"We're not in a relationship anymore."

"But that shouldn't matter."

A sardonic scoff left Sasuke's chapped lips. "But it should."

Viridian eyes narrowed perplexedly. "Do I have to be involved with in an intimate way to care for you?"

Yes, because then, his heart won't ache and yearn for her any longer.

"Hn."

"Again with your one-word answers! Honestly, Sasuke-kun," He flinched at the suffixed name. Suddenly, it felt burdensome to hear it. It reminded him of the past too much. And the past, as sweet and as beautiful as it was, was supposed to be locked in a cage somewhere in the depths of his dark and traumatic mind. "Why can't I care for you like a friend does?"

When he stayed silent, she knew she had won. She had no idea why the man was so adamant on denying her care. She only wanted to help. Is that such a bad thing? After all, if one forwent their previous attachment to each other, she was his _friend_. She was the bubbly pinkette who gave him the dandelion years ago when life didn't matter and innocence was a virtue.

On the other hand, Sasuke had no idea why the woman was so adamant on caring for him. In his mind and in regular social customs, shouldn't associating with your exes be a big no-no? Complications and mixed emotions would be the result of that. And Sasuke was definitely feeling the latter. _Friends_. She says it like her name. _Friends_. Too easy. _**Too **_easy. No matter how Sasuke looked at it, he believed that they were both digging their graves by even working in the same place. After all, she used to be his light. And now that she was just a dim lamp in his life, it was the same as living in darkness.

"Anyway, I **want** you to tell me what's on your mind."

"But **I** don't want to."

"You _**need **_to tell me what's on your mind then."

"Hn, I'm thinking that you're as annoying as heck and you shouldn't be concerned with me."

"That's not going to work."

"But it is what's on my mind."

…

"Sasuke, I'm not here to play games with you."

Smirk. "Who said I was playing games with you?"

Twitch. Twitch. "Fine, then, I'll be more specific. Tell me about what you feel for Shisui. What happened to him?"

Flinch. _She got him there_. A sigh of defeat escaped from his lips. "Regret. Grief. Pain. My friend needs a new heart and he can't get one. He's going to die and I can't do a **fucking** thing about it."

Green orbs softened into mellow pools of sea foam. "Sasuke-kun, hearts don't come on silver platters." A despondent scoff left his cold lips. Where was a cup of tea when he needed one? "You think I don't know that." He sneered sarcastically.

"No, I know. I know you do." She continued sagely. "But it's not just about Shisui, right?" From Sasuke's sudden stiff posture, she mused that she had hit the bull's eye on that one. Shifting closer, she leaned her head carefully on his tense shoulder, sighing reminiscently at the familiar feeling.

"You are brave, Sasuke-kun. For you to make such a decision in the midst of pandemonium, you are brave. Nevertheless, you made that choice because you believed that your brother's legacy will live on in Shisui. But now that tragedy has struck once again, you're _afraid_ that his legacy will be lost." _She always read me right._ Mused Sasuke being reminded of the many times she's shot a ten out of ten with his emotions.

"…Whenever I look at Shisui, I see my nii-san instead. It's selfish of me-" "It's not selfish of you, Sasuke-kun. It's _**human**_ of you." She countered deftly.

Human of him? _**Human**_? Humanity was lost once he saw what he saw on the battlefield. **His** humanity was lost out in war. "It's **not** human, Sakura. I lost that on the battlefield." He reminded softly with sinking eyes.

"I don't believe so." She disagreed and he turned to her and her irises staring deeply into his charcoal ones. "You say you've lost your humanity on the battlefield but I see it differently. I say that the battlefield gave you **more** humanity. Why else would you be a doctor, saving lives in this hospital at such a late hour when everyone else is retired in bed?" Her smile brought life to his dark, cold orbs. Heart beat faster and gut sank deeper. Sasuke had given up on depressing his feelings. The more he did so anyway resulted in stronger affections for her.

He scoffed casually once again. Sakura and her optimistic ideas, he thought. "It's an obligation, Sakura." He replied.

"Obligation? I think not. You work harder than anyone else in this building to save _one_ life. If it was an obligation, you'd be going through the motion like the rest of the world." She argued reasonably. "You overwork yourself because you understand the importance of life and humanity. You've seen so many lives taken away on the battlefield that you **aim** to save each and every life with all your heart."

"Hn." He grunted disconcertingly.

She leaned in closer, her breath fanning the cool skin on his neck. Honestly, if Sasuke wasn't used to Sakura's affections, he would have pushed her off immediately. He wasn't going to admit the fact that he missed her and **this**. He wasn't at all.

"And even if you believe that you aren't human, you have us. Your friends. Neji. Tenten. Konan. Suigetsu. Kankuro. Ino. Naruto. And me, Sasuke-kun. Me." She carried on and Sasuke grumbled, shoving his phone back into his pocket. She lifted her head and shook his arm insistently. "Sasuke-kun, I-"

"Look, you want to know _so badly_ about Shisui? I'll tell you what you want to know." He sneered at her, irritation lighting in his eyes. "He got shot during one of our skirmishes with the enemy just before Itachi was killed. We were getting back at Shisui's shooters and that's when Itachi died. On our way back to base, I spent the entire ride, pumping the chest of my already dead brother to keep the heart alive for the transplant. I made that decision quick and fast like you said in that kind of situation. There was no time for tears or grief. I lost my humanity on that day. Weeks later, I left the army because I couldn't cope with my brother's death. The fucking end. Happy?" He stood, his back turned to Sakura.

…

"Yes, Sasuke-kun. I'm happy. Thank you for telling me about it." Her words were polite but her voice was hard and strained as if she felt wronged. Sasuke groaned inwardly. What the hell was he thinking snapping at her like that? Knowing Sakura, she was going to be hurt as hell. "If you wanted to know what I would have said, I would have said that your brother's legacy doesn't die in Shisui. He lives on in you, Sasuke." He flinched at the omitted suffix, reminding how much he fucked up. "You don't have to be so pessimistic about life and humanity. We're here for you, Sasuke. **I'm** here for you. Why can't you understand that? Why won't you let me be your friend, Sasuke?"

He answered her in a flash. The answer to that was easy. "Because you're my first love, Sakura, and you know what that means." At her widening eyes, he left her alone to mull over his words. If he wasn't obvious enough with his words, he would question her intelligence, really.

"First love?" Sakura repeated to herself in confusion. Did that meant-

* * *

The doors of the hospital flung open and two paramedics pushing in a bloodied groom hurried in. "Multiple casualty MVA. Truck ran a red light and slammed into a wedding limo." One of them informed. Konan stood at the front, directing each gurney to a trauma room. Another gurney wheeled in carrying the maid of honor and then another carrying the bride.

"Alright, Neji, take the groom. Sasuke, take the maid of honor. I'll take the bride." Sakura ordered.

"Trauma three, groom. Trauma four, bride. Trauma five, maid of honor." Konan repeated, pushing a nurse towards one of the rooms. "I need you here. Go."

Sasuke rushed into trauma room five, where the maid of honor lay unconscious with a mask strapped to her and blood on her baby blue dress. Placing his stethoscope on her chest, he began assessing her condition. "I need two 14-gauge antecubital lines* and a chest tube* right away. Status on the bride, Sakura?"

"FAST* is positive." She quipped, dragging the transducer over the bride's lungs. Any animosity or awkwardness before had disappeared in front of work. "Seems like a grade three splenic laceration*. She needs the OR. Neji?" She called for a status update on the groom.

"He's got multiple palpable fractures*." Neji replied, flicking a syringe given to him by a nurse. "No flail. Doing an intercostal nerve block* now." He bent down to inject the steroid into the groom's forearm.

Nothing more was said then. Their focus: Saving three lives.

* * *

Ino strutted down the busy hallway, her heels clicking against the tiled flooring. Her mind was on the Isamu case when Shikamaru joined her by her side. "I called the state police to try and gain more information about the boy's mother." He casually informed and Ino halted in her steps in surprise.

"Really? Thanks so much. I **hate** that part of the job." She groaned playfully, taking pleasure in the small smirk on his face. "Let me know if you find out anything." She shuffled on but was stopped once again with a hand on her arm.

She turned back to Shikamaru with an expectant brow. What did he find out now? "And while I have you, may I ask for your professional expertise on Doctor Uchiha?" He cleared his throat awkwardly. Ino paused for a moment, studying his anticipated form with amusement. Shaking her head with a small chuckle rolling off her lips, she pulled her arm back and walked on.

"He's a great doctor." She answered. Even though she knew what he was asking, she wasn't going to humor him easily now. He caught her arm again, slightly more embarrassed now. "I know that. What about his state of mind? Any signs of PTSD*?"

Ino shook her head wryly this time around and stepped to face the administrator, not saying anything about the hand on her arm. "Anyone who has been to war has PTSD. Naruto, Neji." She shrugged.

"I know that too." He sighed, slowly irritated by her fleeting answers. "I'm asking about Doctor Uchiha specifically." He emphasized hotly.

Ino blinked at him for a few moments before smiling at him dryly. "You really hate him, don't you, Nara-san? What is up with the both of you?"

He looked confused for a moment before shoving his hands into his pockets absentmindedly. "No, what are you talking about?" Ino set him an exasperated look. "I'm talking about how the both of you seem to want to behead each other the moment you two are in a room together. What is up with the animosity, Nara-san?"

Shikamaru paused for a moment, taking his turn to study Ino. The bubbly and rambunctious girl had changed and blossomed into a perceptive and meddling young woman. He couldn't blame her since it was a part of her job. But he just guessed that her job had started to transcend into her social life as well. If this was what it felt like having conversations with Ino –exposed and obliged to tell the truth all the time- then he feared for his life.

"I see what you're doing." He started out knowingly with an arrogant smirk.

"What am I doing?" Ino furrowed her brows at Shikamaru confusedly.

"You're doing _that_ thing. You're turning around my question to get information. When have you become so sneaky, Yamanaka Ino?" he chuckled humorlessly.

The glint in her eyes changed and she shrugged coldly. "Think what you want, Nara, but I was actually just genuinely curious. I was just being a _friend_, you know? But," She sighed disappointedly. "You don't see me as your friend so I guess that doesn't count." The timbre of her voice was biting and Shikamaru cringed at how hurt she sounded.

"Come to my office if you want to talk." She offered with a dull look on her features. It was a sincere offer but her face didn't look all that happy. As she walked away, leaving Shikamaru to ponder her words and their conversation, she called out, "And for your information, I wasn't being sneaky. I was just concerned."

Shikamaru watched her retreating back with a groan. He fucked up. He **so** knew that.

* * *

**A/N:**

Sorry! This was so late and I know it! School's starting so my last weeks of July have been hectic and whatnot with school preparations. I'll try to update more often but I'm heading into freshmen year so I'll see what can happen. I'm also planning out a new story that I may or may not start soon. Ugh, so much stuff!

**Medical terms explained:**

*14-gauge antecubital lines – a peripheral IV that is put into the inner or front of the forearm

*chest tube – a flexible plastic tube that is inserted through the chest wall and into the pleural space or mediastinum; used to remove air, fluid, or pus from the intrathoracic space (Credit: Wikipedia)

*FAST – stand for "Focus assessment with sonography for trauma"; a rapid bedside ultrasound examination performed by surgeons, emergency physicians and certain paramedics as a screening test for blood around the heart or abdominal organs after trauma (Credit: Wikipedia)

*grade three splenic laceration – indicates that the subcapsular haematoma (a type of splenic haematoma) 50% of surface area or expanding; intraparenchymal haematoma 5 cm or expanding; laceration 3 cm in depth or involving trabecular vessels; and a ruptured subcapsular or parenchymal haematoma (Credit: Radiopedia)

*palpable fractures – fractures able to be felt

*intercostal nerve block – an injection of a steroid or other medication around the intercostal nerves that are located under each rib; reduces inflammation and/or swelling of tissue around the intercostal nerves, in between the ribs or in the chest wall (Credit: Medcentral)

*PTSD – stands for "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder"; develops when a person is exposed to one than more traumatic event like sexual assault, warfare, serious injury, or threats of imminent death that result in feelings of intense fear, horror, and powerlessness (Credit: Wikipedia)

**R&R. Te amo! :D**


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